w-  i^c^wy 


THE  LAND 
AND  THE  SOLDIER 


THE    LAND 
AND   THE   SOLDIER 


BY 

FREDERIC  C.  HOWE,  PH.D. 

AUTHOR  OF 

'THE  ONLY  POSSIBLE  PEACE";    "THE  HIGH  COST  OF  LIVING";   "WHY 

WAR  "  ;  "  SOCIALIZED  GERMANY  "  ;  "  EUROPEAN  CITIES  AT  WORK  " 

"PRIVILEGE  AND  DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA";  "THE  MODERN 

CITY  AND  ITS  PROBLEMS "  ;  "  THE  CITY,  THE  HOPE 

OF  DEMOCRACY  "  I  ETC. 


NEW  YORK 

CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S   SONS 
1919 


COPYRIGHT,  1919,  BT 
CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 

Published  March,  1919 


A  VISION 

"No  one  can  doubt  that  we  are  at  a  turning-point 
in  our  national  history.  A  new  era  has  come  upon 
us.  We  cannot  stand  still.  We  cannot  return  to 
the  old  ways,  the  old  abuses,  the  old  stupidities. 
As  with  our  international  relations,  so  with  the 
relations  of  classes  and  individuals  inside  our  own 
nation,  if  they  do  not  henceforth  get  better  they 
must  needs  get  worse,  and  that  means  moving 
toward  an  abyss.  It  is  in  our  power  to  make  the 
new  era  one  of  such  progress  as  to  repay  us  even 
for  the  immeasurable  cost,  the  price  in  lives  lost, 
in  manhood  crippled,  and  in  homes  desolated. 

"Only  by  rising  to  the  height  of  our  enlarged 
vision  of  social  duty  can  we  do  justice  to  the  spirit 
generated  in  our  people  by  the  long  effort  of  common 
aspiration  and  common  suffering.  To  allow  this 
spirit  to  die  away  unused  would  be  a  waste  com- 
pared to  which  the  material  waste  of  the  war  would 
be  a  little  thing;  it  would  be  a  national  sin,  unpar- 
donable in  the  eyes  of  our  posterity.  We  stand 
at  the  bar  of  history  for  judgment,  and  we  shall 
be  judged  by  the  use  we  make  of  this  unique  op- 
portunity. It  is  unique  in  many  ways,  most  of  all 
in  the  fact  that  the  public  not  only  has  its  conscience 


4 ! 483G 


vi  A  VISION 

aroused  and  its  heart  stirred,  but  also  has  its  mind 
open  and  receptive  of  new  ideas  to  an  unprecedented 
degree. 

"It  is  not  the  lack  of  good-will  that  is  to  be  feared. 
But  good-will  without  mental  effort,  without  in- 
telligent provision,  is  worse  than  ineffectual;  it  is 
a  moral  opiate.  The  real  lack  in  our  national  his- 
tory has  been  the  lack  of  bold  and  clear  thinking. 
We  have  been  well-meaning,  we  have  had  good 
principles;  where  we  have  failed  is  in  the  courage 
and  the  foresight  to  carry  out  our  principles  into 
our  corporate  life. 

"This  corporate  life  itself  has  only  been  made 
visible  and  real  to  us  (as  on  a  fiery  background) 
by  the  glow  and  illumination  of  the  war.  We  have 
been  made  conscious  that  we  are  heirs  to  a  majestic 
inheritance,  and  that  we  have  corresponding  obliga- 
tions. We  have  awakened  to  the  splendid  qualities 
that  were  latent  in  our  people,  the  rank  and  file 
of  the  common  people  who  before  this  war  were 
often  adjudged  to  be  decadent,  to  have  lost  their 
patriotism,  their  religious  faith,  and  their  response 
to  leadership;  we  were  even  told  they  were  physi- 
cally degenerate.  Now  we  see  what  potentialities 
lie  in  this  people,  and  what  a  charge  lies  upon  us 
to  give  these  powers  free  play.  There  is  stirring 
through  the  whole  country  a  sense  of  the  duty  we 
owe  to  our  children,  and  to  our  grandchildren,  to 


A   VISION  vii 

save  them  not  only  from  the  repetition  of  such  a 
world  war  and  from  the  burdens  of  a  crushing  mili- 
tarism, but  to  save  them  also  from  the  obvious  peril 
of  civil  dissension  at  home.  We  owe  it  also  to  our 
own  dead  that  they  shall  not  have  died  in  vain,  but 
that  their  sacrifice  shall  prove  to  have  created  a 
better  England  for  the  future  generation.  .  .  ." l 

1  Interim  report  of  the  Committee  on  Adult  Education  to  the 
British  Ministry  of  Reconstruction. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  FACE 

I.    THE  NEW  AMERICA i 

New    Uses    of    Credit — Democracy — Free 
Men — Democracy  in  Europe. 


II.    TO-MORROW 


A  Dream  of  Homes — America's  War  Com- 
munities— The  Farm  Village. 

III.  THE  RETURNING  SOLDIER     ...       14 

Invalided  Soldiers — Canadian  Experiences. 

IV.  THE  NEED  OF  FOOD 20 

V.    THE  FARM  COLONY 23 

Socializing  Farming — The  Size  of  the  Colony. 

VI.    THE  GOVERNMENT  AS  PROMOTER    .      28 

Social  Motives — A  Field  for  State  Activity — 
The  Farm-Colony  in  the  Past. 

VII.    SITES 33 

An  Unpeopled  Continent — Varieties  of  Col- 
onies— Developing  the  Estate. 

VIII.    PLANNING  THE  COMMUNITY  ...      42 

Laying    out    the     Land — Specialization — 
Planning  the  Colonies  of  Australia. 
ix 


:  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PACE 

IX.    FARMING  AS  A  FINE  ART     ...      48 

New  Zealand — Danish  Experience. 

X.    WORKING  TOGETHER 54 

Economics — Dairies  and  Slaughter-Houses — 
The  Experience  of  Other  Countries. 

XI.    LIFE  AND  LEISURE 64 

Economic  Freedom — The  Colonists'  Budget 
— Artisans  and  Artists — The  Fine  Arts — 
The  Club-House  of  Democracy. 

XII.    Is  THE  COLONY  PRACTICABLE  ?  .     .      74 

Financial  Consideration — Opening  the  Col- 
ony to  Settlement — The  Individual  Balance- 
Sheet — Financing. 

XIII.  WAYS  AND  MEANS 84 

Credit  After  the  War. 

XIV.  THE  COMMUNITY  AS  LANDLORD       .      88 
XV.    THE  FARM  COMMUNITY  IN  THE  PAST      95 

XVI.    AMERICA'S  FIRST  COLONY     .     .     .     100 

The  Farm-Laborer — Objects  of  the  Colony — 
Review  of  Board's  Operations — Preliminary 
Investigations  to  Insure  Success  of  the  Enter- 
prise— Method  of  Payment — General  Con- 
ditions Required  by  the  Land  Settlement 
Act — Things  the  Board  Desires  to  See 
Achieved — Allotment  of  Land  to  Settlers, 
June  15,  1918 — Aid  to  Settlers  in  Erection 
of  Houses  and  Arrangement  of  Farms — 
Group  Settlement — Reservation  for  School 
and  a  Community  Centre. 


CONTENTS 


XI 


CHAPTER 

XVII. 


AN  EXPERIMENT  STATION  IN  FARM- 
ING   

From   Bankruptcy  to  Prosperity — Increas- 
ing Wealth  Production — Land  Distribution. 


117 


XVIII.    THE  FARM  COLONY  IN  AUSTRALIA  .     125 

XIX.    LAND  SETTLEMENTS  IN  OTHER  COUN- 
TRIES     .131 

Ireland — Germany — Russia. 

XX.    WHAT  OTHER  COUNTRIES  ARE  PLAN- 
NING FOR  THE  SOLDIER  .     .     .     141 

Expert  Guidance — Settlement  in  Colonies — 
Size  of  Colony — Type  of  Cultivation — 
Ownership  or  Tenancy — Selection  and  Train- 
ing of  the  Tenants — Equipment  and  Adapta- 
tion— Settlers'  Wives — Social  Amenities — 
Provision  for  Expert  Guidance — Co-opera- 
tion and  the  Disposal  of  Products — Provision 
for  Working  Capital — Rents  and  Finance — 
Settlement  by  County  Councils — Disabled 
Men — Propaganda  for  Land  Settlement. 

XXL    THE  REDEMPTION  OF  FARMING  .     .     156 

Conditions  of  Successful  Agriculture — Sus- 
pend the  Homestead  and  Reclamation  Laws 
— Public  Control  of  Transportation  and 
Marketing — Usury — Land  Monopoly — Spec- 
ulation and  Inflated  Land  Values — Farm 
Tenancy — The  Cost  of  Our  Land  Policy — 
The  Basic  Reform  of  Democracy — America 
and  the  New  Agriculture. 


APPENDIX 


179 


CHAPTER  I 
THE  NEW  AMERICA 

The  war  has  released  the  imagination  of 
men.  It  has  cured  inertia,  shaken  up  bureau- 
cracy, and  forced  men  to  think  in  new  terms. 

We  mobilized  4,000,000  men  in  a  few  months' 
time.  We  clothed  them,  fed  them,  housed 
them.  We  gave  them  guns,  equipment,  huge 
engines  of  war. 

We  built  a  great  navy  and  merchant  marine. 
We  sent  an  army  of  2,000,000  men  overseas. 
It  had  never  been  done.  Military  experts 
said  it  could  not  be  done.  We  achieved  the 
impossible.  That  is  the  thing  to  remember. 
It  can  never  again  be  said  that  a  thing  cannot 
be  done  because  it  never  has  been  done. 

The  war  has  disclosed  the  latent,  wasted 
power  that  lies  within  the  nation.  It  has  shown 
undreamed-of  capacity  of  wealth-production. 
It  has  proved  that  a  nation  can  live  in  reason- 
able  comfort  while  pouring  out  billions  in  war 
consumption. 


•¥•'        THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

With  millions  of  men  taken  from  the  ranks 
of  labor,  we  increased  the  production  of  wealth 
by  many  billions.  New  machines  were  in- 
vented, new  processes  devised,  new  economies 
introduced.  Hours  of  labor  were  shortened 
and  still  the  increase  in  wealth-production 
went  on.  The  worker,  who  ceased  to  fear  for 
his  morrow's  job,  worked  normally  and  pro- 
duced more  per  unit  than  ever  before,  while 
millions  of  men,  condemned  by  industrial  con- 
ditions to  work  at  tasks  for  which  they  are  un- 
fitted or  in  which  the  possibility  of  production 
is  necessarily  low,  found  new  openings  in  which 
their  productive  capacity  was  allowed  full 
play.  The  cost  of  the  war  could  be  wiped 
out  by  merely  keeping  the  productive  power 
of  the  nation  employed.  Our  annual  waste 
in  failing  to  work  to  reasonable  capacity  would 
pay  for  the  war  in  a  few  years'  time. 

The  war  released  the  natural  forces  of  men. 
There  was  economic  stimulus  from  the  bonus 
system,  and  wealth  poured  from  the  mills  and 
factories  at  an  unprecedented  rate.  It  is  pos- 
sible that  our  wealth-production  was  increased 
50  per  cent,  during  the  four  years  from  1914 
to  1918. 


THE  NEW  AMERICA  3 

New  Uses  of  Credit. 

Credit  has  been  harnessed.  It  has  been 
made  to  perform  a  new  kind  of  service.  Gov- 
ernment credit  has  built  houses  for  working- 
men;  it  has  aided  farmers  to  plant  and  harvest 
their  crops.  It  has  stabilized  the  price  of  wheat, 
insured  the  lives  of  soldiers,  and  performed 
many  other  functions  new  to  America.  Bank- 
ing and  credit,  heretofore  almost  solely  agencies 
of  private  business,  have  become  agencies  of 
social  welfare.  The  savings  of  the  people  have 
been  put  to  new  uses. 

All  this  and  much  more  has  been  done,  not 
as  we  assumed  it  would  be  done — with  polit- 
ical graft  and  corruption,  ignorantly  directed 
and  more  ignorantly  executed.  The  socialized 
homes  America  has  built  and  the  consideration 
she  has  shown  for  the  workers  in  the  midst  of 
a  war  that  commanded  all  of  our  energies, 
exceeds  anything  the  most  optimistic  reformer 
felt  could  be  achieved  in  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury. 

The  war  has  called  into  service  thousands  of 
men,  who  found  in  social  activities  greater  en- 
joyment than  they  ever  had  before  in  private 
employment.  Quite  as  important,  it  has  shown 


4  THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

us  that  life  is  the  important  thing;  that  man 
is  of  more  consequence  than  inanimate  wealth, 
and  that  the  great  agencies  of  banking  and 
credit,  of  transportation,  of  fuel,  of  iron,  and 
of  steel,  can  be  made  to  provide  a  higher  stand- 
ard of  living  and  promote  a  wider  distribution 
of  comforts  than  was  believed  possible  during 
three  centuries  of  competitive  struggle. 

Democracy. 

America  may  have  stirring  times  to  face  in 
the  future.  Industrial  and  social  problems 
must  be  faced  and  courageously  solved,  for 
states  decay  when  economic  conditions  are 
wrong.  Great  wars  have  hastened  such  decay. 
That  is  what  happened  to  Rome  after  the  wars 
with  Carthage.  That  is  what  happened  to 
Germany  after  the  Thirty  Years'  War.  That 
is  what  happened  to  England  after  the  Napo- 
leonic Wars. 

The  task  of  to-morrow  is  to  lay  the  founda- 
tions of  a  New  Democracy — not  for  the  sol- 
dier alone  but  for  our  own  children  as  well. 
It  must  be  a  democracy  of  far  greater  freedom 
than  that  which  existed  four  years  ago.  There 
were  too  many  millions  in  the  coal-pits,  the 


TEE  NEW  AMERICA  5 

steel-mills,  the  cotton-factories,  the  sweat- 
shops. There  were  too  many  little  children  in 
the  cotton-mills.  There  were  too  many  farm- 
tenants  and  agricultural  drudges.  The  "home- 
less, wifeless,  jobless"  I.  W.  W.  of  the  West 
is  a  product  of  economic  license.  We  thought 
of  work,  of  wealth,  of  everything  but  man. 
We  must  think  more  of  man  and  less  of  wealth. 
America  owes  that  much  at  least  to  the  re- 
turning soldier. 

Free  Men. 

<  Democracy  in  Europe  is  fast  becoming  eco- 
nomic. With  us  democracy  is  legal.  It  must 
be  made  economic,  industrial,  social.  That  is 
the  next  step  in  democracy  everywhere.  Hun- 
ger, destitution,  worklessness  are  dangerous 
things  even  in  a  republic.  An  empty  stomach 
is  no  respecter  of  political  reforms.? 

Russia,  Austria-Hungary,  Germany,  Italy, 
France,  Great  Britain,  even  Canada,  find  that 
the  demobilized  soldier  has  been  transformed. 
Under  shell-fire  in  the  trenches  he  has  lost 
respect  for  things  that  once  seemed  important. 
He  has  become  a  very  realistic  person. 

Real  freedom  is  economic.     It  always  has 


6          TEE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

been  so.  There  is  no  real  freedom  without 
economic  freedom.  Men  may  vote.  They 
may  rise  in  the  world.  Their  children  may  rise 
above  them  in  social  standing,  as  thousands  do. 
But  the  mass  of  men  remain  wage-workers, 
subject  to  the  will  of  some  one  else.  And  they 
reflect  their  status  in  their  political  as  they 
do  in  their  social  relationship.  This  is  not 
only  true  of  the  serf  of  Prussia  and  Austria- 
Hungary,  it  is  true  of  the  peasant  of  England 
and  the  tenant  and  worker  of  America  as  well. 

Democracy  in  Europe. 

The  liberty  of  France  is  not  due  to  the  con- 
stitution of  that  country.  Nor  is  it  due  to 
any  ethnic  qualities  of  the  French  people. 
France  has  been  a  democracy  for  a  hundred 
years  because  the  peasant  owns  the  piece  of 
land  he  works.  His  ancestors  owned  it  be- 
fore him.  It  was  taken  from  the  nobility  at 
the  time  of  the  Revolution,  and  it  has  never 
been  returned.  The  democracy  of  Denmark, 
of  Holland,  of  Switzerland,  of  New  Russia  is 
born  of  the  fact  that  the  farmers  in  these  coun- 
tries own  their  own  farms  and  work  for  them- 
selves. 


THE  NEW  AMERICA  7 

Even  the  education  of  a  people,  their  cul- 
ture, their  ambitions  for  their  children,  the 
hope  they  have  and  their  outlook  on  life  is 
traceable  to  economic  conditions. 

Nearly  a  century  ago  Lord  Macaulay  wrote 
regarding  America:  "The  test  of  your  democ- 
racy will  come  after  the  exhaustion  of  your 
free  lands."  We  are  going  through  this  test 
now.  What  new  opportunities  are  there  avail- 
able in  this  country  to  absorb  the  energies  of 
the  men  who  will  return  after  the  war  ? 

We  should  make  a  far  better  world  than  did 
our  fathers.  Power  has  been  harnessed.  The 
productivity  of  man  has  been  increased  until 
the  labor  of  a  single  individual  often  yields  as 
much  as  was  produced  by  a  village  one  hun- 
dred years  ago.  And  we  should  justify  our- 
selves in  the  war  for  democracy  by  providing 
for  the  soldier  a  home-coming  that  will  not  be 
a  "hand-out"  from  a  job-giver  but  a  free  life 
in  a  free  state.  The  protection  and  promo- 
tion of  democracy  at  home  was  the  task  that 
was  left  to  those  of  us  who  did  not  go  to  the 
front. 


CHAPTER  II 
TO-MORROW 

Four  million  soldiers  are  returning  home. 
Other  millions  are  being  released  from  indus- 
try. The  problem  is  further  complicated  by 
the  fact  that  during  the  war  period  the  services 
of  one  and  a  quarter  million  women  were  requi- 
sitioned by  the  government  for  work  formerly 
done  by  men.  As  the  men  come  back  for  their 
jobs,  what  is  to  be  done  with  these  women  ? 

What  shall  we  do  for  the  worker?  What 
shall  we  do  for  the  soldier? 

There  are  some  who  say  we  can  do  nothing 
but  let  them  go  home.  Others  will  say:  "To 
provide  work,  to  build  homes,  to  open  up  the 
land  and  opportunities  for  an  independent  life 
is  contrary  to  our  history  and  traditions.  It 
is  socialistic.  Moreover  it  is  quite  impossible; 
you  cannot  change  economic  laws  or  human 
nature.  We  must  let  men  take  care  of  them- 
selves. Business  must  be  free  to  follow  its 
own  laws  and  instincts.  The  war  is  over  now, 
and  any  attempt  to  continue  governmental 

control  over  industrial  laws  is  impossible." 

8 


TO-MORROW  9 

'  There  is  no  longer  such  a  thing  as  the  im- 
possible, and  we  are  already  a  semi-socialistic 
state.  We  are  feeding,  clothing,  and  housing 
nearly  5,000,000  of  our  adult  male  population 
in  the  military  establishment,  and,  including 
the  worker  engaged  in  some  form  of  war  ac- 
tivity or  transportation,  the  government  sup- 
ports directly  or  indirectly  one-third  of  our 
people.  There  are  at  least  8,000,000  people 
in  the  government  service.  ^ 

A  Dream  of  Homes. 

Twenty  years  ago  a  book  appeared  in  Eng- 
land, entitled  Tomorrow.  It  was  written  by 
one  Ebenezer  Howard  and  it  described  the 
garden  suburb.  It  awakened  little  interest. 
Those  who  read  it  said:  "An  idle  dream. 
People  must  live  as  they  live  to-day.  We  shall 
always  have  slums  and  tenements.  We  shall 
always  build  houses  for  profit.  We  must  gratify 
individual  tastes,  permit  private  initiative. 
Anyhow  people  wouldn't  live  in  made-to-order 
villages,  spotless  towns,  model  suburbs.  It 
is  contrary  to  human  nature.  Moreover,  who 
would  supply  the  money  ? " 

Following   the   appearance  of  the  book,   a 


io         TEE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

garden  village  was  somehow  financed  and  built, 
the  money  coming  from  private  sources.  The 
houses  were  attractive,  and  the  rent  was  low. 
Each  house  had  a  little  garden  about  it.  There 
was  no  unearned  increment  for  speculators — 
no  profit  for  any  one.  The  best  of  architects 
contributed  their  services,  as  did  town-planners 
and  engineers. 

People  came  first  to  look,  then  to  live. 
Workers  grew  strong  and  healthy.  The  death- 
rate  fell.  Children  throve,  and  the  men  worked 
better  than  they  did  before  in  the  factories. 
Private  capitalists  observed.  They  wanted 
better  workmen.  They  built  villages  of  their 
own,  and  they  paid. 

To-day  there  are  at  least  a  hundred  such 
villages  and  suburbs  in  Great  Britain.  And 
the  government  has  enacted  a  town-planning 
act  which  compels  all  cities  to  plan  their  suburbs 
in  a  sanitary,  beautiful,  social  way.  France, 
Belgium,  Germany,  and  Switzerland  followed. 
The  garden  village  became  a  reality. 

America's  War  Communities. 

Individualistic  America,  confronted  with  the 
necessity  of  housing  thousands  of  munition, 


TO-MORROW  ii 

ordnance,  and  ship-building  workers,  planned 
to  build  barracks  to  meet  the  emergency.  Some 
public-spirited  architects  went  to  Washington, 
and  told  the  story  of  the  garden  cities  of  Eng- 
land. Somehow  or  other  an  appropriation  of 
$40,000,000  was  secured.  It  was  followed  by 
$150,000,000  more.  Instead  of  bunk-houses 
and  barracks,  real  home  communities  arose. 
Architects,  town-planners,  and  educators  work- 
ing at  one  dollar  a  year  united  in  a  joyous  com- 
petition. To-day  eighty-five  such  communities 
are  being  built,  scattered  from  Massachusetts 
to  the  Pacific  Ocean.  When  completed  they 
will  accommodate  275,000  people.  They  in- 
volve a  cost  of  $200,000,000.  They  have  schools 
and  churches,  recreation-fields  and  club-houses. 
They  have  comfort  and  charm.  They  are 
owned  by  the  government  and  stand  out  in 
marked  contrast  to  the  jerry-built  contractors' 
houses  built  for  profit  in  the  neighboring  cities. 

America,  like  England,  has  found  a  way  to 
end  the  house  famine  and  abolish  the  slum. 

The  dream  of  Ebenezer  Howard,  obscurely 
published  twenty  /ears  ago,  has  become  an 
international  reality.  There  is  no  longer  any 
housing  problem.  Only  a  willingness  is  needed 


12         THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

to  enable  all  people  to  live  in  comfortable,  beau- 
tiful homes  of  their  own. 

The  Farm  Village. 

«The  farm  village  is  the  rural  expression  of 
the  garden  suburb.  It  is  a  community  organ- 
ized for  production  as  well  as  life.  That  is 
the  only  difference.  It  includes  the  addition 
of  a  farm  for  the  man  to  work  upon  and  make 
a  living  from.  The  government  advances  the 
money.  The  architect  plans  the  community. 
The  farm  expert  lays  out  the  land  and  aids  the 
individual  farmer. » 

The  object  of  the  farm  colony  is  to  free  men 
as  well  as  to  produce  food;  to  create  a  new 
kind  of  agriculture  in  place  of  the  old  which 
fails  to  produce  enough  food,  enough  farmers, 
enough  of  that  which  we  call  civilization.  Un- 
like the  garden  suburb,  however,  the  farm 
colony  is  not  an  experiment.  It  was  the  ac- 
cepted form  of  farm  organization  for  centuries 
all  over  Europe.  It  is  the  distinguishing  thing 
about  the  agricultural  prosperity  of  Denmark, 
of  Ireland,  of  Australia  to-day.  It  is  the  plan 
that  Great  Britain  is  urging  for  the  redemption 
of  her  rural  life  and  the  settlement  of  the  re- 
turning soldier. 


TO-MORROW  13 

The  farm  colony  should  invite  the  soldier 
in  every  state.  It  should  lure  him  back  to 
his  own  home.  It  should  be  planned,  financed, 
and  developed  by  the  government.  A  pioneer 
colony  has  already  been  started  in  California. 

A  new  agriculture,  a  new  kind  of  farmer, 
and  an  opportunity  for  a  free  life  to  the  worker 
of  the  city  and  the  tenant  of  the  country,  should 
be  one  of  the  contributions  of  the  war. 


CHAPTER  III 
THE  RETURNING  SOLDIER 

The  returning  soldier  may  be  unwilling  to 
go  back  to  the  mill,  mine,  factory,  office,  or 
store.  He  has  lived  in  the  open.  He  has  been 
trained  along  mechanical  lines,  to  build  trenches, 
to  look  out  for  himself.  He  has  acquired  self- 
reliance,  and  along  with  it  a  feeling  of  equality 
which  has  come  from  common  service  under 
a  leader  dedicated  to  a  common  cause.  The 
psychology  of  the  returning  soldier  must  be 
borne  in  mind  in  the  working  out  of  projects  for 
his  rehabilitation.  He  may  be  restless,  possibly 
undisciplined.  He  may  resent  private  employ- 
ment. In  addition,  a  new  sense  of  public 
service  has  been  born  in  the  non-profit-making, 
non-capitalistic  devotion  to  the  state. 

Trench  warfare,  gas,  shell-shock,  create  new 
and  baffling  diseases.  They  linger.  They  re- 
appear after  cure  has  apparently  been  effected. 
A  considerable  percentage  of  the  men  may  be 


THE  RETURNING  SOLDIER  15 

afflicted  with  some  weakness  or  disease  that 
requires  continued  observation. 

The  methods  of  warfare  employed  have  in- 
creased the  number  of  disabled  soldiers.  Sur- 
gery saves  large  numbers  of  men  who  under 
former  conditions  would  not  have  survived. 
All  of  these  men  will  have  a  proper  claim  upon 
the  nation  for  consideration. 

Invalided  Soldiers. 

'Pensions,  hospitals,  sanatoriums,  will  involve 
a  heavy  financial  burden.  The  government 
can  greatly  lighten  this  burden  by  offering  a 
great  variety  of  activities,  such  as  forestry, 
reclamation  work,  and,  in  the  States  of  the 
West,  where  open-air  life  is  possible,  and  where 
men  can  work  in  groups  rather  than  as  isolated 
farmers,  a  new  kind  of  agriculture  should  be 
provided.  From  the  point  of  view  of  economy, 
as  well  as  consideration  for  the  men  themselves, 
there  should  be  a  big-visioned  programme  of 
open-air  life  and  agricultural  reconstruction 
after  the  war.j 

Even  were  we  disposed  to  do  so,  there  is 
no  public  domain  to  distribute  to  the  soldier, 
as  there  was  after  the  Civil  War,  though  the 


16         THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

policy  then  pursued  was  wasteful  in  the  ex- 
treme, both  to  the  soldier  and  to  the  nation 
as  well.  Nor  would  the  soldier  go  to  the  land 
as  he  did  two  generations  ago.  Then  we  were 
an  agricultural  people.  Practically  everybody 
was  familiar  with  farming.  We  were  accus- 
tomed to  the  idea  of  breaking  the  land.  We 
were  still  pioneers.  Even  as  late  as  the  eighties 
men  looked  upon  homesteading  as  the  natural 
thing  for  an  American  to  do.  This  state  of 
mind  is  gone.  We  are  no  longer  a  pioneer  or 
an  agricultural  people.  We  have  become  indus- 
trial. The  great  majority  of  the  men  who  have 
gone  to  the  front  have  no  agricultural  tradi- 
tions, training,  or  inclinations. 

Canadian  Experiences. 

Moreover,  the  experience  of  South  Africa 
after  the  Boer  War,  and  of  Canada  in  her  ex- 
periments in  sending  the  returned  soldier  to 
the  Northwest,  indicate  that  the  soldier  will 
not  go  to  the  unbroken  land.  He  fears  isola- 
tion. He  is  accustomed  to  group  action.  He 
has  been  speeded  up  to  a  high  state  of  nervous 
tension.  There  is  no  lure  to  the  soldier  in  the 
gift  of  1 60  acres  of  land,  unimproved  and  re- 


THE  RETURNING  SOLDIER  17 

quiring  years  to  bring  it  into  cultivation. 
Rather  than  accept  such  payment  from  the 
state  he  will  drift  to  the  city. 

This  state  of  mind  is  a  reflection  of  a  uni- 
versal attitude.  Changed  economic  condi- 
tions are  attracting  boys  and  girls  from  the 
farm.  They  are  reducing  the  farming  pop- 
ulation of  all  countries.  For  the  farm  has  failed 
to  keep  pace  with  the  advance  of  the  world. 
It  is  in  a  state  of  arrested  development.  It  is 
archaic,  unorganized,  uncertain.  It  is  unsocial, 
lonely,  poor  in  the  things  that  all  normal- 
minded  men  and  women  want. 

It  is  necessary  to  recognize  that  the  old  type 
of  farming  is  at  an  end.  It  cannot  compete 
with  the  city.  Even  from  an  economic  point 
of  view  it  does  not  offer  the  same  chances  of 
reward.  The  income  of  the  average  farmer 
is  pitiably  low.  And  it  is  almost  as  uncertain 
as  the  wage  of  the  unskilled  worker.  Farm- 
ing, in  a  large  part  of  the  United  States,  has 
almost  as  many  uncertainties  and  disadvantages 
as  a  city  job.  And  it  has  few  of  the  com- 
pensations. Certainly  this  is  true  of  tenant- 
farming.  And  the  returning  soldier  who  goes 
to  the  land  must  be  a  tenant  or  an  agricul- 


i8        THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

tural  drudge,  for  he  is  not  in  a  position  to 
buy  land. 

The  Trade  and  Labor  Congress  of  Canada, 
after  considering  the  question  of  unemployment 
in  connection  with  the  returning  soldier,  con- 
cluded that  the  present  system  of  homesteading 
was  useless  as  a  solution  of  the  returning-soldier 
problem.  The  settler  had  insufficient  capital 
and  experience.  He  either  could  not  or  would 
not  take  up  a  homestead  or  a  clearing.  As 
an  alternative  the  congress  recommended  "that 
the  government  should  select  land  for  the  proper 
carrying  out  of  a  scheme,  and  be  requested  to 
offer  as  an  option  to  discharge  from  the  army 
further  enlistment  for  a  period  of  five  years 
to  such  men  as  would  be  willing  to  undertake 
agricultural  work  under  the  direction  of  quali- 
fied experts  from  experimental  farms  and  agri- 
cultural colleges;  that  such  men  receive  the 
regular  army  pay  and  allowances,  with  rations 
on  the  same  basis,  suitable  accommodations  to 
be  provided,  with  quarters  for  married  men 
and  families.  After  such  period  of  enlistment 
has  expired,  the  men  who  have  thus  served 
should  have  the  option  of  settlement  upon 
suitably  sized  allotments  of  the  land  so  im- 


THE  RETURNING  SOLDIER  19 

proved,  the  same  to  be  held  on  leasehold  terms 
from  the  Dominion  government." 

The  Ontario  Commission  on  Employment 
unanimously  voted  to  support  the  above  reso- 
lution. 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE  NEED  OF  FOOD 

Even  before  the  war  the  drift  to  the  cities 
was  most  pronounced.  In  1880,  70.5  persons 
out  of  every  100  lived  in  the  country.  In  1900 
there  were  only  59.5.  By  1910  only  53.7  per- 
sons out  of  every  100  were  farmers.  Between 
1900  and  1910  the  urban  population  of  the 
United  States  increased  by  approximately 
12,000,000  persons,  the  country  population 
by  4,200,000.  In  1900  the  urban  population 
was  31,609,000.  Ten  years  later  it  had  in- 
creased to  42,623,000,  an  increase  of  34.8  per 
cent.  During  the  same  period  the  rural  pop- 
ulation increased  from  44,384,000  to  49,348,883, 
an  increase  of  11.3  per  cent. 

Food-production  has  also  been  falling.  This 
is  indicated  by  the  following: 

Before  the  war  began  there  were  15,000,000 
less  sheep  in  the  country  than  there  were  in 
1905. 

There  were  8,500,000  fewer  beef-cattle  than 
in  1909. 


THE  NEED  OF  FOOD 


21 


There  were  46,059,000  sheep  in  1917,  as 
compared  with  51,482,000  in  1913. 

Hogs  decreased  from  67,543,000  to  62,- 
747,000. 

The  number  of  domestic  animals  on  farms 
according  to  the  census  of  1900  and  1910  was 
as  follows: 


YEAR 

DAIRY  Cows 

ALL  CATTLE 

SWINE 

SHEEP 

IQOO 

18,108,666 

6g,-nc,8/?2 

64,686,155 

61,735,014 

IQIO 

2I,7QC,77O 

63,84.2,648 

co,477,6/;6 

52,838,748 

3,687,104 

Increase 

5,493>i84 
Decrease 

5,212,519 
Decrease 

8,896,266 

Decrease 

The  per  capita  production  in  many  staples 
has  fallen  rapidly  or  remained  stationary.  The 
production  of  all  meats  fell  from  248.2  pounds 
per  capita  in  1899  to  219.6  in  1915.  During 
the  same  period  the  production  of  milk  fell 
from  95.6  gallons  to  75.5  gallons;  of  cereals 
from  43.9  bushels  to  40.2;  and  potatoes  from 
3.6  bushels  to  3.5  bushels. 

During  the  sixteen  years  prior  to  the  war 
the  per  capita  production  of  food  was  diminish- 
ing, as  was  the  gross  annual  output. 

These  conditions  are  not  confined  to  any 
section  of  the  country.  Farms  are  being  aban- 


22        THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

doned,  tenancy  increasing,  and  the  farmer  is 
finding  it  increasingly  difficult  to  make  a  liv- 
ing. 

Added  to  other  causes,  the  land  is  being 
exhausted.  Its  early  fertility  is  passing.  This 
is  true  in  the  wheat  belts  of  the  Northwest, 
which  a  few  years  ago  were  held  to  be  capable 
of  producing  for  a  long  period  of  time  without 
fertilization. 

These  conditions  must  be  faced  in  connec- 
tion with  the  suggestions  for  the  return  of  the 
soldier  to  the  land.  For  no  matter  what  the 
generosity  of  the  government  may  be,  the  sol- 
dier will  not  go  to  the  land  or  remain  there  if 
he  cannot  make  a  living.  The  first  task  is  to 
make  farming  a  profitable  profession.  And 
this  involves  a  new  kind  of  farming. 


CHAPTER  V 
THE  FARM  COLONY 

The  farm  life  of  little  Denmark  and  the  farm 
colonies  of  distant  Australia  suggest  the  kind 
of  life  we  should  offer  to  the  soldier.  It  should 
be  the  kind  of  life  we  ourselves  would  be 
willing  to  go  to  after  we  have  exhausted  the 
hope  and  allurements  of  the  city.  It  should 
appeal  to  the  teacher,  to  the  professional  man, 
to  the  worker. 

It  should  make  provision  for  as  many  of 
the  comforts  and  amenities  of  life  as  possible. 
There  should  be  education  and  recreation. 
There  should  be  short  cuts  to  economies,  and 
an  end  of  the  waste  involved  in  the  present 
individualistic  way  of  doing  things.  Expert 
aid  and  assistance  should  be  at  hand,  as  well 
as  protection  by  the  government  from  usury, 
speculation,  and  middlemen.  In  other  words, 
the  farm  colony  should  be  as  like  modern  in- 
dustry as  possible. , 

The  farm  colony  contemplates  an  organiza- 
tion like  the  garden  village  of  England.  It  con- 

33 


24         THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

templates  a  ready-made  farm  all  in  order  for 
working,  rather  than  a  tract  of  unbroken  land 
or  cut-over  forests  many  miles  from  civiliza- 
tion. It  contemplates  co-operative  organiza- 
tion as  well,  and  a  well-ordered  community  life. 
Just  as  housing  reformers  in  England,  Ger- 
many and  America  worked  for  years  for  better 
houses  through  the  control  of  private  builders, 
and  finally  saw  their  dreams  more  than  realized 
by  the  garden  village,  so  the  wasteful  economic 
environment  of  the  whole  agricultural  organi- 
zation will  be  swept  away  and  a  new  type  of 
farming  offered  by  the  farm  colony. 

Socializing  Farming. 

'  The  farm  colony  is  in  effect  a  proposal  to 
socialize  agriculture,  to  create  conditions  that 
will  make  farming  easy  and  attractive.  It 
aims  to  free  the  farmer  from  the  many  economic 
and  social  limitations  under  which  he  labors 
by  reason  of  the  fact  that  he  acts  alone.  The 
underlying  idea  is  group  organization  as  op- 
posed to  individual  lack  of  organization.* 

The  farmer  is  almost  the  only  industrial 
type  that  works  alone.  He  is  not  organized 
for  the  protection  of  his  interests.  He  has  not 


THE  FARM  COLONY  25 

even  the  protection  which  the  worker  in  the 
city  enjoys. 

The  farm  colony  means  community  provision 
for  the  comforts  and  amenities  of  life  through 
such  services  as  are  possible  only  when  people 
live  together.  Education  and  recreation  can 
be  provided.  Water,  electric  light  and  power, 
good  roads,  co-operation  of  all  kinds  can  be 
supplied.  The  unit  remains  the  individual 
farm,  but  the  centre  of  the  farmer's  life  is  the 
community.  Each  resident  owns  his  house,  a 
barn  and  a  piece  of  land  large  enough  for  an 
unaided  man  to  cultivate.  The  colonist  is 
equipped  with  sufficient  capital  to  carry  him 
over  a  season,  together  with  some  cattle,  hogs, 
and  farm-machinery. 

The  soldier  farmer  would  start  as  does  a 
small  shopkeeper  ready  for  business. 

The  colony  should  have  some  of  the  charm 
of  the  old  villages  of  England,  of  the  new  hous- 
ing communities  erected  by  the  United  States 
Shipping  Board  and  the  Department  of  Labor. 
It  should  be  organized  so  that  agriculture  will 
not  be  merely  labor  for  the  sake  of  producing 
enough  wherewith  to  live.  We  have  not,  in  the 
old  order,  thought  of  the  farmer,  of  his  wife,  of 


26         THE  LAND  AND  TEE  SOLDIER 

his  family,  of  life  itself.  We  have  thought 
rather  of  the  amount  of  land  a  man  could  own, 
of  the  amount  of  wealth  he  could  produce. 
Even  our  agricultural  colleges  have  thought 
but  little  of  the  possibilities  of  the  farm  and 
the  joys  which  might  come  to  a  man  from 
rational  contact  with  nature. 

The  Size  of  the  Colony. 

The  colony  should  be  large  enough  to  be 
self-contained.  The  population  should  be  from 
100  to  500  families.  It  should  provide  as  many 
of  the  advantages  of  city  life  as  possible,  not 
educational  and  recreational  alone,  but  eco- 
nomic advantages  as  well.  Division  of  labor, 
and  with  it  increased  production,  is  only  pos- 
sible where  men  live  close  together.  Men  can 
work  together  in  the  breaking  of  their  land, 
the  bringing  of  it  under  cultivation,  the  build- 
ing of  houses,  and  the  carrying  forward  of  their 
common  undertakings.  All  this  is  impossible 
to  the  isolated  farmer.  He  works  at  a  disad- 
vantage because  of  his  isolation. 

A  community  of  this  size  can  have  a  common 
supply  of  water,  of  electric  light,  of  power. 
It  can  join  together  for  transportation  and 


THE  FARM  COLONY  27 

marketing,  for  the  buying  of  its  supplies.  Edu- 
cation, too,  is  possible  in  a  colony  of  this  size. 
There  can  be  graded  schools.  Substantial 
schoolhouses  can  be  erected,  which  can  be 
made  to  serve  as  the  town  hall,  the  movie 
theatre,  the  place  of  recreation,  and  the  centre 
of  social  amenities.  All  this  is  possible  in  a 
colony  of  from  100  to  500  families  with  a  total 
population  of  from  400  to  2,000  people. 

There  would  be  need  for  carpenters,  me- 
chanics, storekeepers,  teachers.  There  would 
be  crafts  of  various  kinds  for  disabled  soldiers. 
Possibly  retired  persons  would  choose  the 
colony  as  a  home. 

The  colonies  should  be  close  by  markets. 
They  should  be  tributary  to  the  great  indus- 
trial centres.  The  waste  in  transportation,  in 
the  loss  of  perishable  food,  in  the  buying  of 
supplies,  in  farming  on  distant  development 
projects  in  the  far  West  or  South  would  be  far 
more  than  offset  by  the  economies  which  would 
come  from  locations  within  easy  access  to  the 
existing  markets.  We  are  thinking  not  only 
of  putting  the  soldier  on  the  land  but  of  offer- 
ing him  a  generous  kind  of  life. 


CHAPTER  VI 
THE  GOVERNMENT  AS  PROMOTER 

The  colonies  would  be  promoted  and  made 
ready  for  sale  and  occupancy  by  the  govern- 
ment. ^The  cost  involved  is  too  great  for  private 
capital.  Moreover,  private  ventures  are  specu- 
lative. The  government,  on  the  other  hand, 
wants  to  promote  citizenship,  to  make  it  easy 
for  men  to  obtain  a  home,  to  stimulate  food- 
production,  and  offer  to  the  soldier  as  full  a 
life  as  possible. 

The  colony  should  be  like  any  other  village. 
The  inhabitants  would  have  complete  inde- 
pendence. They  could  come  and  go  and  do 
as  they  pleased.  Military  control  over  the 
soldier  would  end  with  demobilization,  while 
the  public  officials  would  be  for  the  purpose 
of  promoting  self-help  and  co-operation  rather 
than  for  restraint.  There  would  be  nothing 
charitable  about  the  undertaking. 

Social  Motives. 

A    difference    in    motive    distinguishes    the 

farm  community  from  the  old  style  of  farm- 

28 


THE  GOVERNMENT  AS  PROMOTER      29 

ing.  We  have  proceeded  on  the  assumption 
that  the  individual  farmer  is  able  to  look 
out  for  himself.  As  a  matter  of  experience  he 
has  to  battle  with  every  kind  of  obstacle.  He 
has  to  find  his  own  transportation,  his  own 
markets.  This  is  true  of  the  wheat-grower,  the 
cattle-raiser,  the  dairyman,  the  truck-gardener, 
the  fruit-grower.  He  has  to  find  his  own  credit 
and  take  it  on  the  banker's  terms.  He  has 
to  buy  his  supplies,  his  machines,  his  seed, 
from  trusts — often  working  in  collusion  with 
the  middlemen,  packers,  and  other  agencies. 
Against  these  agencies  he  is  powerless. 

The  government  is  interested  in  seeing  the 
farmer  prosper.  It  is  interested  in  the  produc- 
tion of  food  at  as  low  a  price  as  possible.  And 
the  government  alone  can  cut  out  the  profiteer- 
ing agencies  and  supply  the  organization,  the 
transportation,  the  credit,  and  the  opportuni- 
ties for  marketing. 

A  Field  for  State  Activity. 

The  colonies  should  be  developed  by  the 
States  and  cities;  although  there  is  no  reason 
why  the  federal  government  should  not  make 
experiments  and  co-operate  with  the  local 


3o         THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

authorities  in  this  field.  It  could  advance  a 
portion  of  the  cost.  It  is  far  better,  howerer, 
that  the  enterprise  should  be  locally  managed. 
For  it  is  desirable  that  the  soldiers  should  re- 
turn to  their  home  States.  Moreover,  the 
federal  government  is  distant;  it  is  slow  in 
making  changes;  it  tends  to  standardization. 
It  is  not  likely  to  be  as  efficient  in  administra- 
tion as  the  State  government,  which  is  close 
to  the  people. 

Through  local  action  we  should  have  variety. 
The  colonies  would  be  adjusted  to  local  con- 
ditions and  local  markets.  A  successful  idea 
developed  by  one  State  would  be  carried  to 
another.  Possibly  the  method  of  financing 
would  be  for  the  State  to  acquire  the  land, 
while  the  federal  government  would  advance 
the  working  capital  and  supervise  the  local 
expenditure.  The  local  authorities  would, 
however,  administer  the  enterprise.  Such 
federal-state  co-operation  has  already  been 
developed  in  the  Smith-Lever  agricultural  bill 
for  county  experts  in  the  building  of  roads 
and  in  other  federal-state  activities. 

The  farm  colony  should  be  substituted  by 
the  federal  government  for  the  present  recla- 


THE  GOVERNMENT  AS  PROMOTER     31 

mation  projects  which  too  often  result  in  failure 
and  bankruptcy.  All  future  reclamation  and 
irrigation  projects  should  be  developed  as  ready- 
to-work  colonies.  For  land  distributed  under 
the  reclamation  acts,  like  land  distributed  to 
homesteaders,  has  too  frequently  fallen  into 
the  hands  of  speculators  and  landlords,  which 
has  destroyed  the  purpose  of  these  acts. 

The  Farm  Colony  in  the  Past. 

The  farm  colony  is  a  return  to  the  village 
type  of  farming  which  prevailed  for  centuries 
all  over  Europe.  Only  outside  Europe,  in  fact, 
do  farmers  live  widely  separated  from  one 
another.  In  America  the  isolated  farmer  was 
the  result  of  our  vast  domain  of  free  land. 
Each  farmer  took  as  much  land  as  he  could 
possess.  He  ventured  beyond  the  settlement 
in  search  of  the  most  fertile  sites.  In  the 
West,  farm  units  were  fixed  at  160  acres,  with 
allotments  of  less  fertile  land  of  320  and  640 
acres.  It  was  the  apparently  inexhaustible  re- 
sources of  America  that  led  us,  as  well  as 
Canada  and  Australia,  to  abandon  the  old 
type  of  agriculture.  The  farm  village  was  the 
accepted  type  of  organization  in  a  great  part 


32         THE  LAND  AND  TEE  SOLDIER 

of  the  world  for  many  centuries.  It  is  the 
oldest  and  most  universal  form  of  life  the  world 
has  known. 


CHAPTER  VII 
SITES 

The  sites  of  the  colonies  should  be  chosen 
with  care.  This  will  determine  their  success 
or  failure.  They  should  be  near  city  markets, 
with  cheap  transportation  both  by  water  and 
rail.  There  should  be  colonies  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Boston,  New  York,  Philadelphia, 
Washington,  Cleveland,  Pittsburgh,  and  Chi- 
cago. There  should  be  other  colonies  in  Florida 
and  North  Carolina,  Texas,  Colorado,  Cali- 
fornia, Washington,  and  Oregon.  There  should 
be  one  in  every  State. 

Where  possible  the  colonies  should  be  near 
government  forests  and  national  parks  for 
fuel,  timber,  hunting,  and  fishing.  These  com- 
munities might  be  located  in  Arizona  and  New 
Mexico  for  tubercular  patients  and  convalescent 
soldiers.  There  is  cheap  land  for  truck-growing 
and  oyster-fishing  in  Maryland,  Virginia,  and 
the  Carolinas.  In  the  government  forests  there 
should  be  forestry  colonies  to  provide  for  the 

33 


34        THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

homeless  "lumber-jack"  whose  only  possession 
is  a  blanket,  and  who  moves  from  place  to  place 
with  the  itinerant  timber-camps  which  are  rap- 
idly exhausting  the  timber-lands  of  the  West 
and  South. 

The  I.  W.  W.  organization  is  a  natural  prod- 
uct of  the  conditions  which  prevail  in  the  timber 
industry. 

The  colonies  should  be  located  on  beautiful 
sites.  For  we  can  select  the  site  for  a  farm  colony 
as  we  cannot  for  town  developments  or  garden 
suburbs.  We  have  the  entire  country  to  choose 
from.  The  colonies  should  be  on  rivers,  lakes, 
or  the  sea.  The  land  selected  should  contain 
timber  for  fuel  and  lumber.  The  site  should 
be  chosen  as  a  man  selects  a  country  estate. 

An  Unpeopled  Continent. 

It  has  been  suggested  that  the  soldier  should 
be  employed  at  the  clearance  of  cut-over  lands 
in  Michigan,  Wisconsin,  Minnesota,  and  the 
Far  West;  that  he  should  reclaim  the  swamps 
of  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  and  Florida;  that 
he  should  be  employed  on  irrigation  works 
in  the  Far  West.  Reclamation  projects  will 
open  up  more  land,  it  is  true.  They  will  give 


SITES  35 

temporary  employment  to  the  soldier.  But 
they  will  not  produce  the  kind  of  life  that  the 
farm  colony  offers.  There  is  no  reason  how- 
ever, why  such  reclamation  projects  should 
not  be  confined  to  government  land  or  land 
acquired  in  advance  of  its  improvement  by 
the  government.  Then  it  could  be  developed 
into  a  colony  as  it  was  brought  into  cultiva- 
tion. 

However,  the  reclamation  of  swamp  and 
cut-over  forest-lands  is  an  economic  waste. 
For  there  is  enough  good  land  in  America  not 
only  for  our  6,000,000  farmers;  there  is  land 
for  ten  times  that  number.  We  have  not  begun 
to  cultivate  our  land.  There  are  only  33  people 
per  square  mile  in  the  United  States,  as  com- 
pared with  six  times  that  number  in  little  Den- 
mark. There  are  from  six  to  twenty  times  as 
many  in  England,  Germany,  Austria-Hungary, 
and  Belgium.  Belgium  sends  food  to  Germany, 
England,  and  France.  The  land  is  cultivated 
like  a  garden.  And  in  this  little  state  671  people 
are  found  per  square  mile,  as  compared  with 
one-twentieth  that  number  in  America. 

Merely  to  add  more  land  is  merely  to  pro- 
mote more  speculation,  create  more  landlords, 


36         THE  LAND  AND  TEE  SOLDIER 

and  contribute  an  unearned  increment  to  a 
few  people. 

The  State  of  New  York,  with  the  best 
markets  in  the  world,  has  but  375,0x30  agri- 
culturists within  its  limits.  Along  the  Hud- 
son from  Albany  to  New  York,  along  the 
Mohawk  Valley,  and  in  the  Adirondacks  are 
great  stretches  of  land  whose  selling  price  is 
not  to  exceed  from  $40  to  $60  an  acre.  This 
land  is  in  a  relatively  good  state  of  cultivation. 
Roads  have  been  built.  The  land  has  been 
cleared.  It  is  drained  and  fenced.  It  has  had 
more  than  its  present  value  put  into  it  by  the 
labor  of  generations  of  farmers. 

The  same  is  true  of  Massachusetts  and  the 
Connecticut  Valley.  The  soil  is  not  of  the 
richest,  but  it  can  be  brought  back  to  fertility. 
Virginia,  North  Carolina,  South  Carolina, 
Georgia,  and  Florida  contain  great  stretches 
of  cheap  land.  Every  climate  offers  itself. 
The  cost  of  living  is  low.  And  these  lands 
would  be  far  cheaper  than  reclaimed  waste 
land  on  which  from  $20  to  $50  an  acre  must 
be  spent  to  make  it  ready  for  cultivation.  The 
cost  of  stumping  land  alone  is  from  $40  to  $100 
an  acre. 


SITES  37 

The  State  of  California  contains  20,000,000 
acres  of  land  that  is  not  under  cultivation. 
There  are  great  holdings  ranging  from  25,000 
to  1,000,000  acres  in  extent.  California,  with 
its  wonderful  climate  and  with  every  attrac- 
tion to  out-of-door  living,  could  absorb  mil- 
lions of  people  and  still  be  far  from  densely 
peopled.  Life  is  easy  in  California.  There 
is  an  abundance  of  water-power.  Almost  every 
kind  of  farm-produce  can  be  raised  in  prodigal 
quantities.  Yet  the  State  is  largely  held  by 
land  monopolists  and  speculators  who  will 
only  release  it  at  monopoly  and  prohibitive 
prices.1 

Varieties  of  Colonies. 

There  should  be  colonies  for  different  types 
of  farming.  Some  should  be  for  large-scale 

1  "The  California  campaign,"  says  the  New  York  Nation,  "has 
produced  an  interesting  piece  of  propaganda  on  the  part  of  the 
single-taxers  in  the  last  number  of  the  Great  Adventure.  They 
emphasize  their  startling  figures  as  to  the  land-holding  of  private 
corporations  and  firms  with  a  map  of  one  county,  said  to  be  'a 
fair  sample  of  the  fifty-eight  California  counties,'  which  shows 
it  to  be  owned  chiefly  by  four  companies.  Three  interests,  it 
is  stated,  own  more  acres  on  the  Pacific  coast  than  there  are  in 
the  German  Empire,  while  one  of  the  three  had  about  as  many 
men  on  horseback  guarding  their  fourteen  million  acres  from 
hunters,  squatters,  and  tramps  as  there  were  in  the  United  States 


38         TEE  LAND  AND  TEE  SOLDIER 

production,  others  should  be  primarily  for 
dairying  on  which  pedigreed  cattle,  hogs,  and 
chickens  will  be  raised.  Still  others  should 
be  for  truck-gardening,  for  the  raising  of  vege- 
tables. Fruit-farms  should  be  located  in  the 
regions  best  suited  for  fruit.  There  might  be 
colonies  for  the  raising  of  bulbs,  for  bee-culture 
and  nursery-products. 

There  should  be  industries  in  the  colonies, 
especially  handicrafts  and  the  production  of 
those  things  that  do  not  involve  machine  pro- 
duction. There  are  many  persons  of  small 
means,  teachers,  professional  persons,  and  ar- 
tists who  would  find  such  a  colony  an  attrac- 
tive place  of  residence.  The  garden  villages 

cavalry  before  the  present  war.  Land  which,  it  is  declared,  could 
not  be  bought  for  $200  an  acre,  is  assessed  for  $13.90.  The  State 
Commission  on  Land  Colonization  is  quoted  as  saying:  'Cali- 
fornia has  an  immense  area  of  fertile  and  unpeopled  land.  .  .  . 
Comparatively  few  settlers  are  coming  here  and  many  who  came 
in  recent  years  have  left.  Costly  advertising  and  still  more  costly 
personal  solicitations  have  not  served  to  attract  colonists.  We 
have  not  found  a  single  settler  who,  bringing  with  him  only  limited 
capital,  has  been  able  to  pay  for  his  land  in  the  time  agreed  upon 
in  his  contract.'  The  pamphlet  goes  on  to  point  out  that  the 
war,  by  raising  prices  all  around,  automatically  increases  the 
value  of  these  undertared  'private  empires,'  and  that  every  ad- 
vance of  our  men  on  the  European  fronts  makes  it  harder  for 
any  one  to  get  a  footing  on  the  land  at  home."  (Issue  of  October 
25,  1918.) 


SITES  39 

of  England  have  drawn  many  industries  and 
persons  of  this  class. 

Texas  is  far  from  peopled.  Its  area  is  greater 
than  that  of  Germany  with  her  67,000,000 
people.  It  has  easy  water  communications 
with  the  tropics,  with  Europe,  with  the  Middle 
West.  Yet  in  many  counties  in  this  State  60 
per  cent,  and  sometimes  80  per  cent,  of  the 
farmers  are  tenants,  working  under  conditions 
that  are  but  little  different  from  those  of  the 
tenantry-cursed  countries  of  Europe. 

According  to  the  United  States  census  over 
200,000,000  acres,  or  one-quarter  of  our  total 
agricultural  acreage,  is  in  great  estates  whose 
average  size  is  in  excess  of  4,000  acres.  Com- 
monwealths like  Texas,  California,  Montana, 
Idaho,  and  the  Dakotas  contain  estates  of 
10,000,  100,000  and  even  1,000,000  acres.  Of 
the  800,000,000  acres  in  farms,  over  400,000,000 
acres  are  not  under  cultivation  at  all;  while 
out  of  every  100  farms  in  the  country  37  are 
operated  by  tenants,  and  in  the  Central  and 
Western  States  the  number  of  tenant-farmers 
rises  to  50  per  cent.,  60  per  cent.,  and  even  80 
per  cent,  of  the  total. 

Why  should  America  waste  the  labor  and 


40         THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

the  lives  of  her  men  in  reclaiming  miasmatic 
swamps  and  in  stumping  distant  forests,  when 
there  is  unused  land  in  abundance  in  the 
settled  and  fertile  parts  of  the  country? 

Developing  the  Estate. 

The  colony  estates  would  be  cultivated  for 
one  or  two  years  under  government  experts. 
They  would  be  planted  and  harvested  by 
machinery  and  on  a  large-scale  basis.  This 
would  probably  be  done  by  the  would-be 
colonists,  the  soldiers,  who  would  be  paid  a 
current  rate  of  wage  and  a  living  for  their 
labor.  Possibly  the  farms  would  be  cultivated 
on  a  co-operative  basis,  j  There  would  be  no 
compulsion  about  this.  The  colonists  could 
come  and  go  as  they  pleased,  for  the  organiza- 
tion would  be  like  any  other  industry.  During 
the  winter  months  the  men  would  build  houses, 
barns,  roads,  and  fences.  They  would  sub- 
divide the  holdings.  They  would  prepare  the 
allotment  for  distribution.  The  farm  would  be 
a  school  of  agriculture  not  unlike  those  main- 
tained by  our  agricultural  colleges,  the  men 
being  taught  new  methods  by  the  actual  doing 
of  farm-work.  By  this  means  the  land  would 


SITES  41 

be  brought  to  a  better  state  of  cultivation.  It 
would  be  properly  fertilized.  The  best  use  to 
which  it  could  be  put  would  be  established. 
Fruit-trees  would  be  planted,  land  would  be 
drained,  forests  cleaned  of  underbrush,  and  the 
estate  put  into  shape  for  colonization.  By  this 
means,  too,  the  expert  would  know  the  best 
uses  to  which  the  land  could  be  put. 

We  may  assume  that  a  farm  conducted  in 
this  way  would  pay  the  cost  of  such  reclama- 
tion. It  might  yield  a  surplus  which  would 
be  credited  to  the  community  fund.  Certainly 
much  valuable  experience  would  be  gained. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
PLANNING  THE  COMMUNITY 

The  planning  of  the  village  proper  should 
be  in  the  hands  of  men  trained  in  the  plan- 
ning of  towns,  as  were  the  housing  projects 
of  the  Department  of  Labor  and  the  United 
States  Fleet  Corporation,  as  were  the  garden 
suburbs  of  Great  Britain.  Natural  advantages 
should  be  preserved.  Water-fronts,  forests, 
points  of  vantage  and  lands  suitable  for  park- 
ing should  be  held  for  common  use.  This  is 
all  very  easy  when  land  is  not  developed  for 
speculation.  There  should  be  forests  to  pro- 
vide fuel,  as  is  the  case  with  hundreds  of  small 
towns  and  villages  all  over  Europe  where  the 
community  forests  often  yield  a  substantial 
revenue.  A  generous  amount  of  space  should 
be  set  aside  for  recreation,  for  school  enclosures, 
for  an  agricultural  experiment  station.  Roads 
should  be  designed  as  they  are  in  garden  cities, 
with  pleasing  vistas.  There  should  be  a  com- 
munity centre  with  a  public  common  about 
which  would  be  the  public  school,  the  co-opera- 

4* 


PLANNING  THE  COMMUNITY          43 

tive  stores,  the  church,  the  railway-station. 
The  houses  should  be  designed  by  good  archi- 
tects, but  built  at  wholesale.  In  this  way  great 
economies  not  only  of  material  but  of  labor 
can  be  secured. 

Laying  out  the  Land. 

Agricultural  experts  should  distribute  the 
estate  into  farm-holdings  according  to  the 
needs  of  different  types  of  settlers.  The  areas 
should  be  of  different'  sizes,  according  to  the 
best  use  to  which  the  land  can  be  put.  The 
aim  should  be  to  give  to  the  individual  man 
only  as  much  land  as  he  himself  can  cultivate. 
For  there  are  to  be  no  tenants,  and  but  few 
agricultural  workers  in  the  colony. 

The  area  within  the  village  proper  should 
be  divided  into  small  allotments  of  possibly 
one-half  acre  in  extent  as  homestead  sites. 
This  land  could  be  used  for  truck-gardening, 
the  raising  of  chickens,  etc.  The  allotments 
just  outside  the  village  should  be  for  intensive, 
small-scale  culture.  They  should  be  from  two 
to  ten  acres  in  extent.  These  should  be  for 
artisans  and  selected  kinds  of  farming  where 
intensive  methods  must  be  used.  The  more 


44         THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

distant  tracts  should  be  larger.  They  should 
be  devoted  to  wheat  and  corn,  potatoes,  vege- 
tables, pastures,  and  large-scale  production. 
Possibly  the  outlying  lands  for  pasture  should 
be  held  under  community  tenure  so  that  they 
could  be  cultivated  by  groups  of  men  or  used 
in  common.  Large-scale  production  is  the 
natural  way  of  raising  wheat,  of  dairying  and 
some  other  types  of  farming,  as  is  indicated 
by  the  great  wheat-fields  of  the  West  and  the 
private  dairy-farms  about  the  large  cities. 

There  should  be  forest-lands  for  fuel  and 
domestic  use,  and  pastureland  for  cattle. 
These,  too,  might  remain  under  community 
ownership,  worked  by  some  co-operative  method 
or  in  common,  as  they  were  in  England  and 
a  great  part  of  Europe  up  to  the  end  of  the 
seventeenth  century. 

In  the  case  of  some  kinds  of  colonies  it  is 
possible  that  all  of  the  labor,  except  the  in- 
tensive work  of  small  holdings,  could  be  done 
by  groups  much  better  than  by  individuals. 
There  is  no  reason  why  the  co-operative  method 
should  not  be  applied  to  agriculture  as  it  has 
been  by  the  private  dairy  corporations,  which 
have  developed  large  estates  near  the  eastern 


PLANNING  THE  COMMUNITY          45 

cities,  or  by  gentlemen  farmers  or  by  private 
individuals  who  maintain  estates  for  pedigreed 
cattle.  The  aim  is  to  adjust  farming  to  modern 
industrial  and  capitalistic  methods,  and  by 
so  doing  to  keep  down  costs  and  increase  pro- 
duction. 

Specialization. 

Specialization  may  be  developed  in  the 
colony.  When  a  farmer  goes  in  for  every  kind 
of  farming,  from  the  raising  of  wheat  to  the 
raising  of  cattle,  chickens,  hogs,  vegetables, 
and  fruit,  he  must  be  skilled  in  every  kind  of 
farming,  and  he  must  own  all  kinds  of  farm- 
implements.  All  this  involves  a  minimum  of 
production  and  a  great  outlay  of  capital.  It 
involves  an  unnecessary  investment  in  different 
kinds  of  farm-implements.  One  reason  for 
the  failure  of  agriculture  is  its  lack  of  specializa- 
tion. Under  the  plan  proposed  men  can  be 
trained,  they  can  work  most  efficiently.  They 
can  own  many  things  in  common,  which  is 
not  possible  under  the  old  type  of  farming. 

Planning  the  Colonies  of  Australia. 

The  land  settlements  of  Australia,  as  well 
as  the  state  colony  in  California,  have  been 


46         THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

planned  in  this  way  not  only  by  experts  in 
town-planning  but  by  farm  experts  as  well. 
Describing  the  methods  employed  in  New 
South  Wales,  Mr.  Frank  S.  Digby,  manager 
of  one  of  the  colonies,  said  in  an  address  de- 
livered at  the  State  University  of  California: 

"We  have  built  towns.  We  cannot  put 
men  on  lands  remote  from  transportation. 
Now,  on  this  land,  which  we  bought  for  $15 
per  acre  we  have  laid  out  several  villages  and 
two  large  towns.  In  doing  this  we  secured 
the  services  of  some  of  the  finest  brains  we 
could  get.  We  started  in  and  laid  out  each 
town  before  getting  any  one  to  settle.  We 
laid  out  broad  streets,  planted  trees,  sup- 
plied electricity,  lighting,  and  everything  com- 
plete. Then,  when  everything  was  ready  and 
all  these  streets  had  been  opened  up  and  cut 
into  blocks,  an  assessed  value  put  on  them  in 
order  to  give  everybody  an  equal  chance,  we 
put  them  up  at  auction.  The  buyer  gets  a 
perpetual  lease  tenure,  that  is,  instead  of  buy- 
ing the  freehold  title,  which  would  give  him 
the  right  to  sell  whenever  and  to  whomever 
he  pleased,  he  buys  the  perpetual  right  to  use 
that  land  as  long  as  certain  conditions  are  com- 
plied with,  and  this  carries  with  it  the  right 
for  his  descendants  to  use  it  by  inheritance. 

"The  land  that  has  not  yet  been  thrown 
open  to  settlement  is  being  improved  by  mak- 


PLANNING  THE  COMMUNITY          47 

ing  provision  for  all  sorts  of  conveniences  for 
farms  and  dairying  facilities.  What  is  being 
done  on  the  farms  now  occupied  will  increase 
the  value  of  the  land  to  be  thrown  open  later 
on  and  by  this  means  the  State  will  be  more 
than  rewarded  for  its  outlay.  In  fact,  we  found 
that  all  the  expenditure  by  the  government, 
as  long  as  it  is  being  done  along  wise  lines,  is 
being  justified  and  everything  we  can  do  that 
tends  to  the  comfort  of  the  settlers,  and  their 
success  has  been  money  well  spent  so  long  as 
it  has  been  done  profitably  and  well." 


CHAPTER  IX 
FARMING  AS  A  FINE  ART 

The  colony  should  be  conducted  as  a  great 
experimental  farm.  Dairying  and  household 
economics  should  be  taught.  Government  ex- 
perts would  direct  the  farmers  in  raising  cattle, 
the  diversification  of  crops,  dairying,  etc.  Pedi- 
greed cattle,  hogs,  chickens,  and  sheep  should 
be  bred;  competitions  should  be  stimulated 
within  the  community  and  with  other  colonies. 
Wherever  this  has  been  tried  the  farmers  have 
introduced  better  breeds;  they  have  increased 
the  value  and  volume  of  crop-production;  they 
have  been  led  to  compete  in  friendly  rivalry 
with  one  another.  An  esprit  de  corps  has  been 
stimulated  through  such  methods  and  a  new 
kind  of  agriculture  developed. 

This  happened  almost  spontaneously  upon 
the  opening  of  the  California  State-land  settle- 
ment at  Durham,  in  that  state,  the  first  colony 
of  its  kind  in  this  country.  The  farmers  or- 
ganized a  co-operative  breeding  association. 
They  raised  money  for  the  purchase  of  pedi- 
greed cattle  and  hogs.  They  agreed  to  stand- 

48 


FARMING  AS  A  FINE  ART  49 

ardize  their  cattle  by  raising  only  Holstein 
herds.  In  Wisconsin,  where  scientific  agri- 
culture has  been  promoted  by  the  State 
University,  the  same  results  have  followed. 
Certain  counties  have  become  famous  for  one 
breed  of  cattle,  other  counties  for  another. 
Scrub  horses  and  cattle  have  been  weeded  out. 
The  farmers  have  purchased  blooded  stallions 
and  bulls.  By  co-operative  effort  and  moral 
suasion  they  have  introduced  better  grades, 
not  only  for  breeding  but  for  dairying  pur- 
poses as  well.  Purchasers  now  come  to  these 
counties  from  all  over  the  United  States  for 
the  purpose  of  buying  cattle.  They  have  ac- 
quired a  reputation  of  their  own. 

Through  similar  efforts  the  farmers  of  Wis- 
consin have  cultivated  pedigreed  corn,  wheat, 
and  oats.  They  have  selected  seeds,  and  by 
so  doing  have  greatly  increased  the  production 
per  acre.  Some  farmers  devote  their  entire 
attention  to  the  raising  of  pedigreed  seeds, 
which  are  sent  all  over  the  world. 

New  Zealand. 

The  same  thing  happened  in  New  Zealand, 
where  the  farm  colony  is  a  demonstrated 


50         THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

success.  The  allotments  are  small  enough 
for  a  single  man  to  cultivate  without  the  aid 
of  hired  labor.  The  farmers  in  consequence 
have  brought  the  entire  acreage  under  cultiva- 
tion. They  have  improved  their  live  stock. 
Production  has  been  so  largely  increased  that 
the  farmers  have  been  able  to  repay  the  loans 
to  the  State  in  a  much  shorter  time  than  was 
expected.  The  Canadian  commission  which 
investigated  the  subject  says  of  the  New  Zea- 
land experiment: 

"Throughout  the  country  a  higher  and 
better  civilization  is  gradually  being  evolved. 
The  young  men  and  women  who  are  growing 
up  are  happy  and  contented  to  remain  at  home 
on  the  farm,  and  find  ample  time  and  oppor- 
tunity for  recreation  and  entertainment  of  a 
kind  more  wholesome  and  elevating  than  can 
be  obtained  in  the  city." 

The  gain  from  expert  guidance  is  cultural 
as  well  as  economic.  It  dignifies  agriculture. 
It  arouses  an  interest  in  subjects  heretofore 
dull  and  uninteresting.  It  awakens  the  farmer 
to  the  fine  points  of  cattle,  dairying,  and  fruit- 
culture.  A  new  interest  is  given  to  farming, 
an  interest  that  extends  into  other  fields. 


FARMING  AS  A  FINE  ART  51 

The  experts  should  have  control  over  the 
planting,  rotation  of  crops,  and  other  details 
until  the  colony  is  safely  established.  This 
should  be  one  of  the  conditions  of  occupancy. 
For  many  of  the  colonists  will  have  no  knowl- 
edge of  agriculture;  while  those  who  have 
been  farmers  will  be  unfamiliar  with  modern 
methods,  intensive  cultivation,  and  the  new 
ways  and  ideas  which  have  been  developed 
in  this  and  other  countries. 

Danish  Experience. 

In  Denmark  one  finds  over  the  stall  of  al- 
most every  cow  a  specification  chart  stating 
her  average  yield  of  milk,  the  amount  of  food 
consumed  daily,  the  dates  of  calving,  and  other 
information  required  by  the  inspectors  of  the 
Scientific  Control  Association,  of  which  the 
farmer  is  a  member.  The  milking  is  mostly 
done  by  machines,  the  operation  being  com- 
pleted by  hand.  The  farmer  knows  precisely 
how  much  his  cow  yields.  He  can  compare 
her  with  the  stock  of  his  neighbors.  Hogs 
and  chickens  are  studied  in  the  same  way. 
Animal  husbandry  becomes  an  art  of  consum- 
ing interest  under  such  competitive  stimulants. 


52         THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

The  retired  business  man,  the  "gentleman" 
farmer,  appreciates  the  enjoyment  of  this  kind 
of  farming.  He  spends  on  such  enthusiasms 
as  other  men  spend  on  private  yachts,  the  col- 
lection of  art  treasures,  or  rare  books.  And 
in  Denmark  the  peasants  have  united  the  scien- 
tific possibilities  of  farming  with  their  daily 
work.  Partly  as  a  result  of  this  the  Dane  has 
become  the  best-educated  person  in  Europe. 
"In  England  you  find  factories,  in  Germany 
barracks,  in  Denmark  schools,"  is  a  Danish 
saying.  With  the  Dane  education  is  a  life- 
long pursuit.  It  is  part  of  his  every-day  life. 
It  is  connected  with  his  co-operative  societies, 
with  his  breeding  associations,  with  scientific 
methods  of  cultivation,  with  his  political  ac- 
tivities. Denmark  more  than  any  other  coun- 
try has  discovered  the  cultural  possibilities  of 
farming,  and  in  the  process  Denmark  became 
an  agricultural  experiment  station  for  the 
world. 

If  we  would  fix  our  imagination  on  agricul- 
ture as  we  have  on  other  political  and  economic 
questions,  we  could  eliminate  much  of  the 
distasteful  work  of  the  farm  and  make  it  an 
attractive  profession.  The  necessary  work  on 


FARMING  AS  A   FINE  ART  53 

such  farms  as  described  could  be  performed 
in  six  or  seven  months  in  the  year;  for  the 
other  months  the  farmer  could  be  free  to  go 
and  come  as  he  wills.  In  the  case  of  dairying, 
hog  and  chicken  raising,  the  work  is  continuous, 
but  this  too  should  be  specialized  and  possibly 
carried  on  under  some  kind  of  corporate  or- 
ganization so  as  to  economize  in  capital  and 
labor. 

There  is  no  reason  why  entire  colonies  should 
not  be  devoted  to  one  kind  of  farming,  to  dairy- 
ing, fruit-culture,  bee-raising,  truck-garden- 
ing, and  the  like.  This  is  already  being  done 
by  corporations  which  supply  milk,  butter, 
bacon,  sausage,  jams,  and  canned  goods.  Ail 
of  the  features  of  community  organization 
have  been  worked  out  in  this  country.  Only 
it  has  been  done  by  individuals  and  corpora- 
tions rather  than  by  the  community.  Com- 
munity organization  by  a  large  number  of 
people  is  possible  only  with  the  aid  and  direc- 
tion of  the  government,  and  the  use  of  some 
kind  of  control  to  maintain  the  standards  and 
methods  which  are  recognized  as  essential  to 
the  well-being  of  the  whole. 


CHAPTER  X 
WORKING  TOGETHER 

Co-operation  should  be  the  key-note  of  the 
farm  village,  co-operation  in  production,  in 
buying  and  selling;  in  the  ownership  of  ma- 
chinery and  of  much  of  the  work  as  well.  Pos- 
sibly the  community  should  organize  a  cor- 
poration for  these  purposes  as  has  been  done 
by  the  United  States  Government  in  ship- 
building, in  its  housing  communities,  in  the 
buying  and  selling  of  grain  and  other  activities 
which  could  more  readily  be  performed  in  this 
way  without  the  delays  or  bureaucratic  pro- 
cedure of  regular  official  agencies. 

The  corporation,  however,  should  be  open 
to  everybody.  There  should  be  no  possibility 
of  control  by  large  stockholders  or  of  its  pur- 
pose being  diverted  to  the  making  of  profits 
for  any  one  other  than  all  the  members  of  the 
community. 

The  corporation  or  the  community  could 
own  tractors,  motor-trucks,  heavy  machinery, 

*54 


WORKING  TOGETHER  55 

a  retail  store,  warehouses,  dairies,  slaughter- 
houses, and  even  blooded  stallions  and  bulls 
for  breeding  purposes. 

Economics. 

By  such  co-operation  the  colony  would  elimi- 
nate much  waste.  There  is  waste  in  individual 
ploughing,  harrowing,  and  harvesting,  and  far 
greater  waste  in  each  farmer  being  compelled 
to  find  his  own  market. 

Farm-tractors  for  ploughing,  harrowing,  and 
cultivating  the  soil,  which  go  from  farm  to 
farm  in  rotation,  have  been  recently  purchased 
by  the  States  of  Massachusetts,  New  York, 
and  Pennsylvania.  They  are  distributed 
throughout  the  State  and  operated  by  experi- 
enced engineers  for  bringing  the  land  of  in- 
dividual farms  under  cultivation.  The  cost 
of  wholesale  preparation  is  from  one-third  to 
one-half  that  involved  in  individual  labor. 

There  should  be  community-owned  ware- 
houses and  cold-storage  plants  in  which  the 
farmer  can  store  and  through  which  he  can 
sell  his  produce  without  the  intervention  of 
middlemen.  In  this  way  the  man  with  three 
or  four  acres  of  land  is  assured  of  as  good  a 


56         THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

market  as  the  man  with  a  great  estate.  Under 
these  conditions  produce  need  not  rot  in  the 
fields  for  lack  of  labor,  cars,  or  distributing 
agencies.  An  agent  of  the  community  can 
establish  a  market  in  the  near-by  centres;  and 
being  in  a  position  to  guarantee  a  uniform 
product,  he  can  build  up  a  better  price  than 
that  which  the  individual  farmer  receives. 
This  is  the  method  employed  by  the  successful 
co-operative  societies  of  California,  which  sell 
oranges,  lemons,  and  other  perishable  fruit 
all  over  America  at  a  negligible  cost.  They 
have  eliminated  the  middlemen;  they  have 
no  bad  debts,  and  they  realize  the  full  value 
of  their  produce.  Co-operation  in  selling  is 
universal  in  Denmark.  In  the  Australian 
States  it  is  performed  by  the  state  through 
officials  who  receive,  grade,  and  assemble  all 
kinds  of  farm-produce,  who  bring  it  to  sea- 
ports and  store  it,  and  ultimately  find  trans- 
portation for  it  to  the  English  markets.  The 
States  of  Australia  also  own  the  slaughter- 
houses and  cold-storage  plants.  This  is  one 
of  the  reasons  for  the  success  of  agriculture  in 
these  countries. 


WORKING  TOGETHER  57 

Dairies  and  Slaughter-Houses. 

There  should  be  a  community  dairy.  It 
would  be  operated  at  cost.  The  owner  of  a 
single  cow  would  then  be  in  as  good  a  position 
as  the  owner  of  a  large  herd.  The  dairy  would 
also  standardize  the  product  and  by  premiums 
and  fines  bring  the  individual  farmer  up  to  a 
higher  standard  of  excellence. 

There  are  1,300  co-operative  dairies  in  little 
Denmark.  They  built  up  the  dairying  in- 
dustry in  that  country.  They  are  largely  re- 
sponsible for  the  high  standard  of  quality  of 
Danish  butter  and  the  high  price  which  it  brings 
in  the  European  markets. 

Slaughtering  should  also  be  done  co-opera- 
tively, or  in  a  community  slaughtering-house. 
There  are  forty-four  community  slaughtering- 
houses  in  Denmark,  in  which  country  the 
farmers  themselves  broke  the  power  of  the 
private  packers  by  owning  the  abattoirs  them- 
selves. As  a  result,  the  raising  of  hogs  and 
the  production  of  bacon  and  hams  became 
one  of  the  primary  industries  of  the  coun- 
try. 

The  Danish  farmers  also  have  their  own 
selling  agencies  with  headquarters  in  London. 


58         THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

They  have  eliminated  the  middleman,  and 
save  all  his  profits  for  themselves.  Bacon, 
eggs,  and  butter  are  distributed  in  this  way. 
There  is,  in  fact,  very  little  that  is  not  per- 
formed by  the  Danish  farmer  through  his  own 
co-operative  agencies. 

Co-operation  serves  yet  another  function. 
It  standardizes  and  improves  the  product.  A 
community  reputation  may  be  made  by  private 
individuals,  in  the  production  of  bacon,  sau- 
sage, or  preserves. 

Community-owned  cold-storage  plants  and 
warehouses  will  enable  the  producer  to  hold 
his  perishable  produce  for  a  favorable  market. 
It  makes  it  possible  to  assemble  in  quantities 
so  as  to  market  economically.  It  also  shields 
the  producer  from  the  middlemen  and  specu- 
lators who  control  the  distribution  of  food  in 
the  country  through  their  control  of  the  ter- 
minals, cold-storage  plants,  and  warehouses. 

Under  such  a  system,  and  with  colonies 
located  near  the  seaboard  or  market  centres, 
transportation  could  be  by  motor-truck.  The 
parcel-post  could  be  developed  as  a  medium 
of  distribution  as  it  is  all  over  Europe.  This 
is  a  relatively  easy  matter  once  the  farmer  is 


WORKING  TOGETHER  59 

organized  and  in  possession  of  the  machinery 
for  marketing. 

A 
The  Experience  of  Other  Countries. 

There  is  nothing  new  or  untried  in  this  sug- 
gestion of  co-operation.  In  Denmark  the 
farmers  have  organized  4,000  societies  covering 
almost  every  activity  of  the  farm.  These 
societies  contain  2OO)ooo  members,  and  trans- 
act tens  of  millions  of  dollars  of  business  every 
year.  They  control  not  only  dairying,  slaugh- 
tering, the  sale  of  eggs  and  bacon,  they  provide 
insurance  of  all  kinds,  loans,  credit,  and  do 
their  own  buying  at  wholesale. 

In  Australia  nearly  all  of  these  services  are 
performed  by  the  government.  Mr.  Frank  S. 
Digby,  referred  to  in  an  earlier  chapter,  de- 
scribes the  methods  pursued  in  the  farm  colonies 
of  New  South  Wales.  He  says : 

"In  addition  to  the  butter-factory  we  have 
quite  a  number  of  other  undertakings.  We 
have  cheese-factories,  we  have  canning-fac- 
tories, and  we  run  a  large  nursery — we  have 
three  of  them,  supplying  settlers  with  trees 
suitable  for  the  climatic  conditions  and  true 
to  type.  Some  of  these  undertakings  are  a 
success;  others  are  being  run  at  slight  loss. 


60         TEE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

However,  we  feel  that  it  is  justified,  in  order 
to  help  along  the  development  of  the  area,  not 
to  be  too  hard  in  connection  with  these  under- 
takings; we  do  not  want  to  insist  upon  their 
being  run  at  a  profit,  and  the  annual  losses 
which  are  being  sustained  on  some  of  them 
are  looked  upon  as  justified  expense. 

"We  have  a  very  fine  bacon-factory,  erected 
about  two  years  ago.  In  connection  with  this, 
we  afford  additional  special  assistance.  If  a 
man  wants  to  have  pigs  and  has  no  money  to 
buy  them,  the  government  allows  him  to  have 
them.  We  go  into  the  market  and  buy  at  the 
right  time,  and  a  man  comes  along  and  says 
he  wants  a  few  pigs;  he  signs  an  agreement 
the  same  as  for  his  horses  or  cattle,  and  pays 
a  small  deposit  and  takes  the  pigs  away  with 
the  understanding  that  they  have  to  be  sup- 
plied to  the  bacon-factory.  He  is  required  to 
make  a  deposit  of  25  per  cent,  and  nothing 
more  until  the  pigs  are  sold.  The  remaining 
75  per  cent,  is  deducted  from  the  sale  of  pigs 
to  the  bacon- factory. 

"  We  go  further  and  import  stud  stock  of  all 
kinds  for  the  use  of  the  settler  in  order  to  in- 
sure that  the  right  kinds  of  stock  are  being 
developed  on  the  area. 

"  Public  abattoirs  have  been  erected  and  the 
commission  has  issued  regulations  that  all 
cattle  shall  be  killed  in  these.  A  settler  may 
drive  any  stock  to  these  abattoirs  and  have  it 
killed.  The  charge  is  $2.50  a  head  for  cattle, 
35  cents  for  sheep,  and  85  cents  for  pigs.  These 


WORKING  TOGETHER  61 

slaughter-houses  are  erected  on  the  latest  prin- 
ciples of  sanitation  and  equipped  with  refriger- 
ators. The  use  of  the  refrigerators  for  a  certain 
length  of  time  is  included  in  the  slaughter  charge 
to  the  settler.  The  result  of  this  system  is  that 
this  area  has  a  meat  supply  equal  to  any  of 
the  big  cities.  The  sheep  and  cattle  are  ex- 
amined as  soon  as  slaughtered  and  if  diseased, 
or  not  up  to  a  fixed  standard,  are  condemned. 
By  this  means  the  people  are  insured  a  fine 
meat  supply.  Situated  as  we  are  in  the  midst 
of  sheep  sections  and  stock-raising  districts, 
generally  we  have  the  very  finest  meat  that 
one  could  wish  for. 

"The  system  of  public  abattoirs  in  Aus- 
tralia has  received  a  great  deal  of  attention 
during  recent  years.  In  Sydney  and  in  dif- 
ferent parts  of  the  country  the  government 
has  erected  public  abattoirs  in  which  it  insists 
that  all  meat  killed  for  consumption  has  to 
be  killed  under  government  supervision,  and 
that  has  a  double  effect.  It  insures  the  con- 
sumer a  reliable  food-supply  and  it  also  in- 
sures the  growers  of  stock  against  any  risk  of 
combines  of  purchasers  of  cattle  for  killing.  In 
each  of  these  towns  there  are  regular  carcass- 
buyers,  men  who  come  into  the  markets  and 
buy  from  the  farmers  thousands  of  sheep,  hun- 
dreds of  cattle,  and  take  them  to  the  govern- 
ment slaughter-house  and  kill  them.  Part  of 
this  meat  is  then  distributed  among  the  re- 
tailers and  part  of  it  kept  in  cold  storage,  and 
later  shipped  to  England.  So  far  there  has 


62        THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

been  sufficient  competition  to  insure  the  grower 
of  good  prices  for  the  meat,  and  of  course  since 
the  war  the  grower  of  stock  has  reaped  a  great 
harvest  through  the  very  high  prices.  The 
establishment  of  public  abattoirs  is  one  of  the 
very  best  means  of  preventing  any  trust  or 
amalgamation  of  corporations  joining  together 
holding  and  controlling  the  distribution  of 
meat  to  the  detriment  of  the  grower.  Every 
grower  of  stock  in  New  South  Wales  knows 
that  he  can  run  his  stock  down  to  the  public 
abattoir  and  have  it  killed.  He  can  then  make 
arrangements  for  shipping  it  to  London.  He 
is  not  at  the  mercy  of  any  combine  or  trust, 
and  I  am  glad  to  say  that  up  to  the  present 
time  the  atmosphere  of  Australia  does  not 
seem  at  all  congenial  to  the  trust  or  combina- 
tion of  merchants  or  speculators  who  prey  upon 
the  grower  or  the  farmer. 

"The  investment  of  the  government  in  the 
project  at  the  end  of  1916  was  approximately 
$19,000,000.  I  suppose  now  it  is  about  $20,- 
000,000.  The  ultimate  total  expenditures  will 
amount  to  between  $25,000,000  and  $30,- 
000,000.  The  duty  of  every  one  connected 
with  it  is  to  see  that  as  soon  as  possible  the 
government  will  receive  in  turn  from  these 
growers  sufficient  interest  charges  and  the 
cost  of  these  improvements.  The  best  policy 
is  to  assist  a  man  as  much  as  possible,  but  at 
the  same  time  not  to  bear  too  hard  on  the 
settlers  to  get  as  much  as  possible  from  them — 
to  get  the  last  pound  of  flesh  from  them — be- 


WORKING  TOGETHER  63 

cause  the  whole  success  of  the  scheme  depends 
upon  the  individual  success,  and  that  can  be 
brought  about  only  by  sympathetic  treatment 
of  the  men  subject  to  the  law  of  the  country 
and  the  honest  carrying  out  of  their  side  of 
the  contract." 


CHAPTER  XI 
LIFE  AND  LEISURE 

Life  and  leisure  will  occupy  a  permanent 
place  in  the  farm  community.  There  have 
been  peoples  in  the  past  that  cared  very  little 
for  the  amassing  of  private  wealth.  The  life 
of  Greece,  of  Rome,  of  the  cities  of  mediaeval 
Italy,  of  the  free  towns  of  France,  Germany, 
and  the  Netherlands,  in  the  days  of  the  guilds, 
had  other  ideals  than  the  accumulation  of 
property.  The  people  lived  very  much  in  the 
open,  they  built  temples,  cathedrals,  town  halls, 
rather  than  mills,  warehouses,  and  private 
palaces.  They  even  built  temples  to  trade. 

Even  though  we  discount  the  descriptions 
of  the  life  of  these  people,  there  must  have 
been  a  wide-spread  interest  in  something  other 
than  wealth,  or  getting  more  and  more  land, 
or  monopolizing  more  and  more  property. 
Otherwise,  they  would  not  have  left  us  so  much 
art,  culture,  literature,  and  beauty. 

64 


LIFE  AND  LEISURE  65 

Even  the  worker  was  an  artist,  who  took 
pride  in  his  labor.  He  as  well  as  the  architect 
saw  the  plans. 

Our  industrial  civilization  has  come  to  mag- 
nify labor  at  the  expense  of  the  laborer.  The 
worker  is  a  "hand."  He  is  a  number.  A 
machinist  presenting  himself  for  employment  in 
a  Western  city  described  himself  as  being  "Nut 
No.  79."  That  was  the  extent  of  his  mechanical 
operations.  He  affixed  a  nut  to  a  part  of  a 
machine  as  it  passed  through  his  hands. 

We  have  carried  the  same  values  into  farm- 
ing. It  is  not  the  joy  of  production,  of  nature, 
of  getting  as  much  as  possible  out  of  life;  it  is 
a  desire  to  possess  more  land,  to  pay  off  a  mort- 
gage in  order  that  our  children  may  have  more 
land.  The  ideal  of  an  Iowa  farmer  has  been 
described  to  be  "to  get  more  land,  to  raise 
more  corn,  to  feed  more  hogs,  to  buy  more 
land,  to  raise  more  corn,  to  feed  more  hogs," 
and  so  on  ad  infinitum. 

Economic  Freedom. 

The  farm  colony  should  exalt  the  man  and 
minimize  the  labor.  Its  object  should  be  free- 
dom for  the  worker,  rather  than  accumulation 


68         THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

The  colonist  will  pay  the  government  from 
$100  to  $300  a  year  or  some  $10  to  $25  a  month 
on  his  investment.  This  in  time,  will  repay 
the  loan  and  the  interest  as  well.  Light  and 
water  from  community  plants  will  supply  do- 
mestic needs,  and  provide  power  for  the  farm 
or  for  such  light  industries  as  the  colonist  may 
want  to  carry  on.  Supplied  at  cost,  these  will 
be  negligible  items  in  his  budget. 

Food  there  must  be.  And  food  is  a  scarce 
article  to  the  poor  of  our  cities.  Yet  it  is  cheap 
enough  on  the  land,  so  cheap  that  a  great  part 
of  that  which  we  produce  is  never  gathered. 
It  is  left  to  rot  in  the  fields.  But  our  little 
colony  is  a  food-factory,  organized  to  produce 
with  the  least  possible  labor  the  best  food  the 
soil  can  be  made  to  yield. 

The  colonist  has  a  small  patch  about  his 
cottage  on  which  he  can  raise  all  the  vegetables, 
fruit,  and  eggs  that  he  needs  for  his  household. 
His  cows  will  produce  milk,  butter,  and  cheese, 
and  his  hogs,  bacon  and  ham.  He  brings  his 
milk  to  the  co-operative  dairy  or  a  collector 
gathers  it  for  the  entire  community.  This  of 
itself  yields  a  substantial  income.  For  a  cow, 
if  properly  bred  and  cared  for,  is  a  great  wealth- 


LIFE  AND  LEISURE  69 

producer.  In  Denmark  where  the  cows  are 
milked  by  machinery  and  are  bred  with  the 
greatest  care,  the  average  annual  yield  of  butter 
in  some  herds  has  been  raised  to  229  pounds, 
and  of  milk  to  617  kilograms.  In  this  little 
country  68,000  farmers  make  ^some  kind  of 
living  from  farms  whose  average  size  is  37/100 
of  an  acre.  They  supplement  their  work  on 
their  own  farm,  it  is  true,  by  working  a  portion 
of  the  time  on  the  larger  estates  in  the  neigh- 
borhood. 

Once  the  problems  of  rent  and  food  are 
solved,  a  man  is  comparatively  free.  He  pos- 
sesses himself.  Fuel  would  be  bought  at  whole- 
sale through  the  co-operative  store  as  would 
clothes  and  other  commodities.  Fuel  might 
be  supplied  in  part  from  the  forests  of  the  neigh- 
borhood just  as  it  is  to-day  in  hundreds  of 
little  villages  in  Europe  where  the  forests  are 
still  the  common  possession  of  all  the  people. 
With  the  elemental  needs  supplied,  a  few  hun- 
dred dollars  a  year  would  support  a  family 
in  far  greater  comfort  than  the  average  worker 
or  many  professional  persons  and  teachers  in 
the  cities  enjoy. 


70         THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 
Artisans  and  Artists. 

There  would  probably  be  disabled  soldiers 
in  the  colony.  They  would  have  their  place 
and  their  industries  as  well.  There  would  be 
artisans,  carpenters,  painters,  workers  of  all 
kinds.  For  this  is  not  exclusively  a  farm  colony 
by  any  means.  The  factories  would  not  be 
machine-shops  or  cotton-mills,  however.  They 
would  be  handicraft-shops,  which  have  fallen 
away  in  competition  with  our  large-scale  pro- 
duction, but  which  will  probably  be  recalled 
to  life  as  a  result  of  the  efforts  of  the  warring 
countries  to  create  new  industries  for  disabled 
men.  Hundreds  of  crafts  which  contribute  to 
the  beauty  of  life  could  be  developed  in  the 
village  or  be  carried  on  within  the  home. 
They  include  wood  and  metal  working,  weaving, 
designing,  glass  and  copper  making,  the  print- 
ing and  binding  of  books,  the  making  of  toys,  the 
designing  of  wall-papers,  carpets,  rugs,  the  mak- 
ing of  beautiful  furniture,  and  the  creation  of  ar- 
tistic things  in  porcelain,  china,  and  other  wares. 

The  Fine  Arts. 

The  drama,  music,  and  other  forms  of  art 
expression  can  be  made  a  part  of  the  every- 


LIFE  AND  LEISURE  71 

day  life  of  the  colony  as  they  are  in  the  garden 
villages  of  Great  Britain.  The  schoolhouse 
should  be  the  centre  of  such  activities.  It 
should  be  the  people's  playhouse. 

The  community  school  was  a  dream  but  a 
few  years  ago,  but  to-day  in  every  pro- 
gressive city,  and  in  hundreds  of  rural  dis- 
tricts, schools  are  being  built  and  used  for  all 
kinds  of  activities  for  which  there  was  formerly 
no  place.  New  types  of  school  buildings  are 
being  erected.  They  are  equipped  for  new 
uses.  The  assembly-room  is  an  auditorium. 
It  has  a  stage.  The  seats  can  be  removed  for 
receptions  and  dances.  There  are  swimming- 
pools  and  gymnasiums.  The  public  library  is 
housed  within  the  school.  All  this  has  become 
a  conventional  part  of  school  architecture. 
In  the  city  of  New  York  people's  orchestras 
and  community  singing  societies  have  been  or- 
ganized. They  have  become  permanent  institu- 
tions. Dramatic  leagues  educate  the  children 
in  expression.  Pageants  are  given,  and  art 
exhibitions  are  held,  while  candidates  for  office 
come  to  the  school  platform  to  speak  or  be 
heckled  as  to  their  political  policies. 

More  recently  the  schools  of  New  York  have 


72         THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

become  the  centre  of  labor  activities.  They 
are  used  for  meetings  of  the  trades-unions,  for 
discussion  of  factory  conditions,  for  the  pro- 
motion of  a  people's  education. 

The  Club-House  of  Democracy. 

In  our  little  village  the  school  would  be  the 
community  club-house.  Round  about  it  would 
be  playgrounds,  tennis-courts,  a  baseball-dia- 
mond. There  would  be  an  experimental  farm 
in  the  neighborhood.  The  co-operative  socie- 
ties, the  town  council,  candidates  for  office 
would  meet  here. 

The  schoolhouse  should  be  in  the  centre  of 
the  community,  located  on  the  most  prominent 
street.  Surrounding  it  would  be  shops,  the 
church,  and  other  community  buildings. 

All  this  has  been  done  in  the  many  housing 
communities  erected  by  the  government  dur- 
ing the  war. 

Electric  light  and  power  should  be  provided 
at  the  lowest  possible  cost.  Where  produced 
by  water-power  the  cost  is  very  low.  It  can 
be  used  for  cooking,  for  operating  machines, 
for  relieving  the  drudgery  of  domestic  work. 
More  important  still  is  its  use  for  small  crafts, 


LIFE  AND  LEISURE  73 

or  domestic  industries,  or  for  doing  the  work  on 
the  farm. 

These  forms  of  community  expression  are 
rapidly  finding  a  place  in  almost  every  city. 
We  are  passing  into  a  more  generous  kind  of 
living  in  the  towns,  but  thus  far  no  provision 
for  recreation  has  been  made  for  the  farm. 
Isolation  precludes  it.  This  is  one  reason  why 
the  farm  is  being  abandoned.  It  does  not  com- 
pete with  the  commercial  and  voluntary  attrac- 
tions that  the  town  offers.  These  must  and 
should  be  provided,  as  they  can  be  in  a  com- 
munity. There  is  in  fact  opportunity  for  almost 
as  full  a  life  in  an  organized  farming  village  as 
there  is  in  a  large  city. 


CHAPTER  XII 
IS  THE  COLONY  PRACTICABLE? 

Is  the  colony  feasible  ?  Can  it  be  made  ac- 
cessible to  the  man  with  little  capital  or  the 
soldier  with  no  capital  at  all  ?  Can  farmers 
be  induced  to  act  together?  Will  people  go 
to  such  a  colony  ?  Will  they  accept  guidance 
and  control  ?  Does  the  project  involve  too 
staggering  an  outlay  to  permit  of  its  trial  ? 

We  are  so  accustomed  to  leave  in  private 
hands  those  activities  that  contain  any  possi- 
bility of  profit  and  to  turn  over  to  private  phi- 
lanthropy all  those  activities  wherein  private 
agencies  find  no  profit  that  we  reject  as  im- 
practical any  suggestion  that  looks  to  the  people 
themselves  or  the  government  venturing  into 
new  relations  which  interfere  with  private 
profit  or  private  philanthropy.  Even  play- 
grounds, public  baths,  widows'  pensions,  em- 
ployment insurance,  the  new  activities  of  the 
schools,  were  opposed  but  a  few  years  ago  as 

74 


75  THE  COLONY  PRACTICABLE?        75 

socialistic.  The  Federal  Farm  Loan  Boards 
and  the  Postal  Savings  Fund  were  assailed  as 
fraught  with  grave  danger.  Only  the  most 
urgent  war  necessities  forced  the  housing  pro- 
gramme of  the  United  States  Fleet  Corpora- 
tion and  the  Department  of  Labor  through 
Congress.  The  government  operation  of  rail- 
roads, of  the  telephone  and  the  telegraph,  the 
United  States  Fleet  Corporation,  and  the  bank- 
ing institutions  under  the  control  of  the  govern- 
ment were  limited  to  the  duration  of  the  war 
or  a  short  period  thereafter  as  a  result  of  such 
fears. 

Yet  these  activities,  involving  billions  of 
dollars  and  the  most  intricate  administrative 
organization,  have  proved  a  success.  They 
have  been  taken  over  with  but  little  friction, 
and  the  gain  in  economies,  in  efficiency,  and 
in  other  lines  has  been  prodigious.  There  has 
been  no  graft,  no  corruption,  no  spoils,  no  dis- 
crimination— none  of  the  catastrophes  so  freely 
and  confidently  promised  have  come  to  pass. 
The  government  is  apparently  as  efficient  as 
private  business.  At  least  it  effects  many 
economies  and  brings  about  equality  of  treat- 
ment to  all  classes.  These  gains  with  the  new 


76        TEE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

motives  of  administration  that  prevail  go  a  long 
way,  and  in  the  minds  of  many  far  more  than 
offset  the  alleged  evils  that  government  action 
involves. 

Financial  Consideration.  \ 

Let  us  examine  the  proposal  from  a  financial 
point  of  view.  How  will  it  be  organized  and 
financed  ?  What  will  be  the  cost  to  the  in- 
dividual farmer  ?  What  are  to  be  his  relations 
to  the  government  ? 

Let  us  assume  that  the  individual  farms 
would  range  from  five  to  fifty  acres,  and  that 
the  average  size  would  be  thirty  acres.  There 
would  be  many  smaller  holdings  for  artisans, 
workers  and  persons  of  small  means  or  more 
advanced  in  years.  These  holdings  would  be 
from  one  to  four  acres  in  extent.  The  early 
farms  of  New  England  and  the  Eastern  States 
were  small,  for  in  colonial  days  each  man 
worked  his  farm  with  such  aid  as  he  got  from 
his  children.  There  was  no  labor  surplus  from 
which  he  could  draw,  for  the  agricultural 
worker  and  the  tenant  moved  on  to  the  new 
lands  and  took  up  holdings  of  their  own.  So, 
too,  did  the  boys  and  girls  as  soon  as  they 


IS  THE  COLONY  PRACTICABLE?        77 

were  able  to  leave  the  parental  roof.  For  two 
hundred  years  the  American  farmer  made  a 
living  on  a  small  farm  of  from  thirty  to  sixty 
acres.  And  this  is  adequate  for  a  single  man 
to  cultivate  and  maintain  in  its  proper  con- 
dition of  fertility. 

Let  us  assume  that  the  government  acquires, 
either  at  private  sale  or  by  condemnation  pro- 
ceedings, 10,000  acres  of  land  in  Massachusetts, 
Connecticut,  New  York,  Virginia,  North  Caro- 
lina, Texas,  Minnesota,  Wisconsin,  or  the  West- 
ern Pacific  coast  States.  Good  land  can  be 
bought  in  these  sections  not  far  from  the  best  of 
markets  at  from  $30  to  $100  per  acre.  It  is 
in  Iowa,  Illinois,  Kansas,  and  California  that 
farm  values  are  highest.  In  other  States  any 
quantity  of  land  can  be  had  in  abundance  at 
a  cost  no  greater  than  the  labor  cost  involved 
in  bringing  swamp-land  and  cut-over  land  un- 
der cultivation.  This  is  one  reason  why  the 
colonies  should  be  developed  on  land  already 
under  cultivation. 

Opening  the  Colony  to  Settlement. 

When  the  estate  has  been  brought  to  a  proper 
state  of  fertility  the  allotment  would  be  thrown 


78         THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

open.  Only  men  with  some  agricultural  experi- 
ence would  be  accepted.  Probably  they  should 
be  required  to  have  a  certain  amount  of  capital. 
The  planning  experts  would  locate  the  village. 
They  would  select  the  most  attractive  _site, 
with  water,  trees,  and  a  pleasing  outlook  on  the 
surrounding  country.  There  would  be  gener- 
ous allotments  of  land  for  schools,  playgrounds, 
and  public  buildings.  Possibly  a  substantial 
acreage  would  be  set  aside  for  common  forests 
and  pastures.  Through  these  the  individual 
farmer  would  secure  firewood  and  pasturage 
for  his  cows  under  by-laws  issued  by  the  com- 
munity. 

Let  us  assume  an  average  holding  of  30 
acres  for  each  farmer,  including  the  site  of  a 
homestead  in  the  village,  and  that  the  land 
brought  into  cultivation  has  cost  the  govern- 
ment $80  per  acre.  Here  is  a  financial  out- 
lay of  $2,400  for  land  for  a  fair-sized  farm, 
which  has  been  put  in  the  best  of  condition. 
In  some  colonies  the  average  would  be  smaller; 
in  others  larger,  depending  on  the  type  of 
colony.  The  aim  would  be  to  adjust  the  size 
of  the  farm  to  the  kind  of  farming  and  the 
market. 


IS  THE  COLONY  PRACTICABLE?        79 

The  farms  would  radiate  out  from  the  village 
and  might  be  some  distance  away.  A  plot 
of  land  three  miles  square  contains  5,760  acres, 
or  enough  land  for  a  colony  of  from  1,500  to 
2,000  persons.  The  most  distant  farm  would 
be  not  more  than  a  mile  and  a  half  from  the 
community  centre. 

The  Individual  Balance-Sheet. 

Houses  far  superior  to  the  average  farm- 
house could  be  properly  designed  and  erected  at 
wholesale  for  from  $1,500  to  $2,000.  Cottages 
for  artisans  and  small  cultivators  could  be 
built  for  less.  The  outbuildings  would  cost 
$500  more,  if  materials  were  bought  at  whole- 
sale. The  lumber  would  be  cut  to]  lengths 
and  a  great  part  of  the  building  would  be  per- 
formed at  the  mills  in  accordance  with  speci- 
fications laid  down  by  the  architect.  At  the 
outside  $2,000  would  be  needed  for  cattle, 
machinery,  and  working  funds  sufficient  to 
carry  the  farmer  through  the  first  season.  This 
last  would  be  in  the  nature  of  a  banking  loan, 
to  be  repaid  as  soon  as  possible. 

Here,  then,  is  the  balance-sheet  of  the  farmer 
with  a  good-sized  farm,  when  he  opens  his 


8o         TEE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

accounts,  according  to  a  standardized  system 
introduced  by  the  government: 

Land $2,400 

House 1,800 

Outbuildings 500 

Actual  working  capital 2,000 

Total $6,700 

There  would  be  small  allotments  costing 
from  $2,500  to  $3,000. 

The  farmer  might  be  expected  to  be  provided 
with  from  $1,000  to  $2,000,  which  he  would 
be  required  to  invest.  This  would  safeguard 
the  government.  In  Denmark,  where  $18,- 
000,000  have  been  advanced  by  the  state  for 
the  promotion  of  small  holdings,  the  settler 
is  required  to  advance  10  per  cent  of  the  cost. 
In  California  his  advance  is  considerably  more, 
being  about  one-third  of  the  total  cost.  No 
advance  payment  need  be  required  of  the  ar- 
tisans and  workers. 

We  may  assume,  then,  that  the  net  capital 
investment  of  the  government  is  $5,500  for 
each  of  the  300  farms,  or  $1,650,000  for  the 
colony.  An  additional  outlay  which  might  ag- 
gregate $200,000  more  would  still  be  required, 
since  roads  would  have  to  be  built,  school- 


75  THE  COLONY  PRACTICABLE?       81 

houses  erected,  cottages  provided  for  artisans 
and  workers,  and  farm-machinery  acquired. 
To  this  total  should  be  added  a  possible 
$360,000  more  contributed  by  the  farmers  them- 
selves. 

This  would  be  a  very  different  equipment 
from  that  of  the  average  farmer.  It  would 
include  efficient  machinery  and  many  con- 
veniences. There  would  be  good  roads,  a  com- 
fortable house  and  proper  outbuildings.  The 
farmer  would  have  sufficient  capital  to  carry 
him  over  a  season.  The  land  would  have  been 
put  in  good  condition.  It  would  be  drained 
and  fertilized.  The  credit  advanced  would  be 
on  easy  terms  and  the  experts  provided  would 
protect  the  farmer  from  mistakes,  while  his 
horses  and  cattle  would  be  guarded  against 
disease. 

Financing. 

Government  funds  for  the  purpose  would 
be  raised  by  the  sale  of  bonds,  as  in  the  case 
of  the  Federal  Farm  Loan  bonds.  They  would 
be  real  liberty  bonds  for  a  new  kind  of  democ- 
racy— a  democracy  of  economic  freedom.  They 
would  bear  a  low  rate  of  interest,  and  be  re- 


82         THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

deemed  year  by  year  out  of  the  payments  by 
the  settlers. 

The  colonist  would  be  given  every  aid  at 
the  start,  and  would  not  be  required  to  repay 
anything  on  the  principal  for  one  or  two  years. 
Possibly  the  interest  payments  would  be  sus- 
pended for  a  limited  period  while  the  land  is 
being  brought  into  intensive  use.  Then  the 
farmer  would  begin  to  reduce  the  principal 
by  annual  payments  extending  over  from  thirty 
to  sixty  years.  The  advance  for  working  capital 
would  be  first  repaid.  The  housestead  and 
other  improvements  should  be  paid  for  during 
their  estimated  lifetime,  while,  if  the  land  is 
sold  outright,  the  term  of  payment  can  be 
made  longer.  The  interest  rates  as  well  as 
the  annual  repayment  charge  would  be  low. 
And  as  the  government  has  no  desire  to  make 
money  out  of  the  colonists,  relief  can  be  ex- 
tended in  case  of  emergency. 

The  charge  then  against  the  individual 
farmer  would  be  from  $150  to  $300  a  year. 
This  would  include  his  rent,  the  payment  on 
the  farm  and  the  interest  on  his  purchases  of 
live  stock,  machinery,  etc.  As  time  went  on 
the  annual  payments  would  be  reduced.  Ulti- 
mately they  would  disappear. 


IS  THE  COLONY  PRACTICABLE?       83 

Such  financing  is  so  foreign  to  our  experi- 
ence that  we  can  hardly  treat  it  as  a  practical 
proposal.  But  this  is  what  is  being  done  every 
day  all  over  the  country.  There  are  thousands 
of  farms  that  have  been  bought  in  this  way. 
The  purchaser  makes  a  cash  payment  for  a 
part  of  the  cost  price,  and  gives  a  purchase- 
money  mortgage  for  the  balance.  It  is  the 
commonest  transaction  in  the  world. 

This,  too,  is  the  general  method  employed 
in  Ireland,  where  the  British  Government  has 
advanced  $550,000,000  with  which  to  buy 
out  large  estates  and  distribute  them  in  small 
holdings  to  the  tenants.  The  Danish  system 
is  the  same.  In  Germany,  where  farm  coloniza- 
tion has  been  carried  on  for  years,  upward  of 
$200,000,000  has  been  advanced  by  the  state 
to  aid  purchasers,  and  1,000,000  acres  of  land 
subdivided;  and  in  none  of  these  countries 
has  there  been  any  loss  on  these  investments. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

f 

WAYS  AND  MEANS 

There  is  no  reason  why  cities,  co-operative 
societies,  or  private  corporations  with  a  limi- 
tation on  profits  should  not  promote  colonies, 
as  they  have  promoted  garden  cities  in  Eng- 
land. In  fact,  it  is  quite  probable  that  as  soon 
as  government  experiments  have  proved  suc- 
cessful private  developments  will  be  undertaken. 
In  Australia  the  colonies  are  promoted  by  the 
several  states,  although  the  federal  govern- 
ment co-operates  with  them.  This  gives  va- 
riety and  local  oversight  and  places  at  the 
command  of  the  local  authorities  the  superior 
credit  advantages  of  the  federal  government. 

The  amount  required  for  these  projects  is 
large  but  it  is  negligible  in  comparison  with  what 
we  have  spent  on  the  war.  To  provide  100,000 
farms  and  homes  for  400,000  people  would 
involve  an  outlay  of  less  than  $500,000,000. 
The  amount  would  not  be  spent  at  once,  for 
the  colonies  would  develop  slowly,  and  the 
money  would  come  back  under  the  repayment 

84 


WAYS  AND  MEANS  85 

plan.  Australia  has  already  appropriated  $100,- 
000,000  for  soldiers'  colonies.  Were  we  equally 
generous  our  appropriation  for  the  purpose 
would  amount  to  $2,000,000,000. 

All  this,  it  is  true,  involves  a  new  conception 
of  credit.  But  credit  should  be  an  agency  of 
service.  And  this,  strangely  enough,  is  just 
as  easy  to  establish  as  its  control  by  a  few  and 
its  use  for  the  promotion  of  huge  undertakings 
and  private  business. 

The  simplicity  of  such  credit  organization 
is  seen  in  the  success  and  wide-spread  develop- 
ment of  the  Raiffeisen  and  Schulze-Delitzsch 
credit  systems  of  farmers  and  workers  which 
have  long  been  in  existence  all  over  Europe. 
The  people  do  their  own  banking  with  their 
own  money.  And  their  losses  are  negligible. 
In  Ireland  $550,000,000  has  been  advanced  by 
the  British  Treasury  for  the  purpose  of  aiding 
Irish  tenants  to  buy  a  piece  of  land.  In  Den- 
mark $18,500,000  has  been  advanced  by  the 
state  to  convert  14,000  agricultural  workers 
and  tenants  into  farm-owners.  Credit  has 
been  widely  socialized  in  Australia,  where 
$68,000,000  with  which  to  develop  the  colony 
idea  has  been  loaned  by  the  several  states. 


86         THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

So  far  as  known  there  has  been  no  loss  in 
any  of  these  countries  from  these  advances. 
In  fact,  there  has  been  such  an  increase  in  the 
value  of  the  land  that  there  is  scarcely  any 
possibility  of  loss. 

Credit  After  the  War. 

Credit  after  the  war  must  be  turned  to  new 
uses.  It  must  become  a  public  or  quasi-public, 
not"an  exclusively  private  function.  The  devas- 
tated countries  of  Europe  can  hardly  rise  from 
the  ashes  unless  banking  and  credit  are  dedi- 
cated to  the  rebuilding  of  the  desolated  world. 
It  must  be  used  to  build  homes,  to  bring  the 
land  under  cultivation,  to  buy  farm-machinery, 
horses,  cattle,  seeds,  to  aid  the  worker,  to  de- 
velop industries  small  as  well  as  great.  Unless 
Europe  utilizes  its  credit  agencies  in  this  way 
Europe  may  starve.  It  may  not  come  back 
to  anything  like  normal  existence  for  genera- 
tions. 

The  immediate  future  of  the  world  lies  in 
the  hands  of  those  who  control  the  credit  of 
the  world.  If  credit  is  used  to  aid  the  farmer 
and  the  small  business  man  the  recovery  may 
be  rapid.  If  it  is  used  for  exploitation;  if  it  is 


WAYS  AND  MEANS  87 

permitted  to  follow  opportunities  for  the  great- 
est return;  if  it  is  exported  to  backward  coun- 
tries in  the  interest  of  high  finance  as  has  been 
done  in  the  past,  it  is  quite  possible  that  in- 
dustrial and  social  collapse  may  become  per- 
manent. Civilization  may  even  pass  into  eclipse 
as  it  did  during  the  Dark  Ages  following  the 
decline  of  Rome. 


CHAPTER  XIV 
THE  COMMUNITY  AS  LANDLORD 

Possibly  the  most  important  and  most  dif- 
ficult problem  of  all  is  the  relation  of  the  colonist 
to  the  land.  Shall  the  farmer  own  the  land 
outright  ?  Shall  he  be  given  an  absolute  title 
to  the  land  to  do  with  as  he  wills — to  sell,  to 
lease,  or  to  speculate  in  ?  Or  shall  the  govern- 
ment retain  some  kind  of  control  over  the  land 
to  prevent  speculation  and  improvident  use  ? 

We  assume  that  if  we  make  it  easy  for  a  man 
to  get  to  the  land,  his  own  initiative  will  take 
care  of  everything  else.  We  have  followed 
such  a  policy  for  300  years,  with  the  result 
that  37  per  cent,  of  American  farmers  are  ten- 
ants. In  some  States  the  percentage  is  much 
higher.  The  tenant  is  a  bad  farmer.  He 
moves  from  place  to  place.  He  neglects  im- 
provements and  exhausts  the  soil.  He  takes 
little  interest  in  the  community  and  resents 
taxes  and  improvements.  In  addition  freehold 
ownership  may  lead  to  the  consolidation  of 

88 


THE  COMMUNITY  AS  LANDLORD       89 

holdings.  Men  get  discouraged.  They  may 
be  tempted  by  an  offer  that  gives  them  a 
profit  on  their  investment.  In  time  the  colony 
might  change  its  character:  it  might  even 
cease  to  be  a  colony,  and  become  a  series  of 
large  estates  on  tenant-farms  brought  to  a 
high  state  of  fertility  by  government  aid,  and 
sold  out  by  the  owners  at  a  profit  to  specula- 
tors. 

Speculation  is  likely  to  develop  under  abso- 
lute ownership.  For  the  land  in  such  a  com- 
munity will  probably  increase  in  value.  The 
farm-land  might  very  readily  rise  as  much  as 
$150  to  $300  an  acre,  while  the  building  sites  in 
the  towns  would  be  much  more  valuable.  The 
homestead  site  might  readily  be  worth  half  the 
cost  of  the  entire  farm.  For  with  expert  gui- 
dance, with  co-operation,  with  good  schools  and 
well-developed  markets  and  social  advantages 
the  colony  would  become  a  very  desirable  place 
in  which  to  live,  while  the  farming-land  would 
have  far  greater  value  than  that  of  the  sur- 
rounding country. 

Now  the  purpose  is  to  create  a  community 
of  home-owning,  farm-loving  people,  who  will 
look  upon  the  colony  as  a  permanent  place 


90         THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

of  residence  and  a  home  for  their  children  as 
well.  Permanence  can  be  achieved  only  by 
some  kind  of  continuing  control  over  the  land 
by  the  government.  This  can  be  secured  in  a 
number  of  ways: 

One.  The  government  can  sell  the  land  in 
fee  under  restrictions  which  provide  that  the 
land  must  be  cultivated  by  the  owner,  that  it 
shall  not  be  let  out  to  a  tenant,  that  it  shall 
be  maintained  at  a  certain  standard  of  excel- 
lence, and  that  no  sales  shall  be  made  by  the 
owner  except  with  the  approval  of  the  com- 
munity. 

Covenants  could  be  inserted  in  the  contract 
of  sale  to  insure  that  in  case  of  violation  of 
any  such  regulations  the  holdings  would  revert 
to  the  community  on  payment  of  the  invest- 
ment cost  to  the  owner. 

Two.  In  the  garden  villages  in  England 
plans  have  been  worked  out  for  co-operative 
ownership  of  the  entire  community  by  the 
occupiers.  Tenants  do  not  own  the  houses  in 
which  they  live,  they  own  a  share  in  the  com- 
munity which  is  represented  by  stock  in  a  cor- 
poration. The  tenant-owner  occupies  his  house 
at  a  fixed  rent  as  long  as  he  desires,  and  trans- 


TEE  COMMUNITY  AS  LANDLORD       91 

mits  the  right  of  occupancy  to  his  children. 
The  rent  cannot  be  increased  and  the  stock- 
owner,  or  co-operative  tenant,  as  he  is  called, 
can  sell  his  shares  of  stock  representing  his 
investment  in  the  community  undertaking, 
just  as  he  sells  bonds  or  shares  in  any  other 
corporation.  This  plan  has  proved  perfectly 
feasible.  In  this  way  the  tenant  has  an  in- 
terest in  the  whole  community.  He  is  interested 
in  its  maintenance  and  up-keep.  He  is  jealous 
of  its  membership.  He  promotes  its  co-opera- 
tive undertakings.  He  becomes  part  of  a  com- 
munity through  ownership  in  a  corporation 
which  owns  and  controls  the  entire  village. 
By  this  means  the  increasing  value  of  the  land 
goes  to  the  whole  community,  rather  than  to 
any  particular  owner.  The  village  becomes  the 
speculator.  It  receives  the  "  unearned  incre- 


ment." 


The  capital  advanced  by  investors,  who  are 
not  members  of  the  community,  receives  a 
fixed  return,  like  a  bond.  The  rate  of  return 
is  usually  5  per  cent.  All  earnings  in  excess  of 
5  per  cent.,  and  all  increases  in  the  value  of 
the  land  due  to  the  growth  and  popularity  of 
the  village  goes  to  the  corporation  and  is  used 


92         THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

to  reduce  taxes,  to  build  schoolhouses,  and  for 
other  community  purposes.  This  plan  has 
many  advantages  of  which  the  chief  is  the  in- 
terest aroused  in  the  residents  of  the  community 
as  a  whole. 

Three.  The  third  method  of  community 
control  is  for  the  government  to  hold  the  title 
to  the  land,  capitalize  its  investment  at  cost 
and  lease  the  land  to  settlers  at  an  annual 
ground-rental  sufficient  to  cover  the  interest 
charges  on  the  land  investment.  The  rental 
would  be  determined  by  the  value  of  the  land. 
From  time  to  time  the  ground-rental  would 
be  revalued  as  land  values  changed,  and  any 
rental  collected  in  excess  of  the  original  interest 
charges  could  be  dedicated  to  community  use 
— to  the  payment  of  taxes,  the  promotion  of 
education,  the  erection  of  buildings,  the  owner- 
ship of  blooded  stock,  or  any  other  purpose 
which  the  community  might  decide  upon.  By 
this  means  the  individual  who  happened  to 
get  a  favored  site  would  be  on  a  plane  of  equality 
with  the  individual  who  was  less  fortunate. 
He  would  not  be  enriched  by  the  growth  of 
the  community;  for  we  may  assume  that  land 
purchased  under  these  conditions  and  improved 


THE  COMMUNITY  AS  LANDLORD       93 

by  the  government  would  quickly  acquire  a 
new  value.  The  development  of  marketing, 
the  introduction  of  machines,  the  attractive- 
ness of  community  life,  would  give  to  the  land 
within  the  community  an  increment  value  which 
other  lands  would  not  possess.  In  a  village 
of  2,000  people  the  annual  ground-rent  might 
amount  to  $50,000,  of  which  possibly  one-half 
would  go  to  the  government  for  the  repayment 
of  interest  charges,  and  the  other  half  could 
be  used  for  the  payment  of  taxes  and  other 
community  purposes. 

Such  a  plan  of  taxing  the  land  or  renting 
it  at  its  actual  value  would  automatically  com- 
pel men  to  cultivate  their  land  rather  than 
permit  it  to  lie  idle.  They  could  not  escape 
the  tax-gatherer.  This  plan  would  discourage 
tenancy,  and  end  speculation.  Moreover,  it 
would  reduce  the  functions  performed  by  the 
government  to  a  minimum,  and  would  enable 
the  community  to  enjoy  many  comforts  and 
amenities  which  could  not  be  secured  in  any 
other  way. 

The  same  reasons  do  not  exist  for  community 
control  over  improvements.  These  should  be 
paid  for  and  owned  by  the  individual  occupant. 


94         THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

He  should  pay  interest  upon  the  investment, 
and  an  annual  amortization  charge  sufficient 
to  repay  the  cost  of  the  improvement  during 
its  lifetime,  possibly  thirty  years. 

Under  this  plan  the  colonist  would  own  his 
home  which  he  could  transmit  to  his  children 
as  fully  as  though  he  were  the  owner  of  the 
land.  When  his  improvements  were  paid  for 
he  would  be  free  from  all  obligations  to  the 
community  or  the  government  except  his  annual 
ground-rent,  which  would  contribute  to  the 
payment  of  his  taxes.  He  would  be  to  all  pur- 
poses a  freehold  farmer  except  that  he  could 
not  speculate  in  his  land  or  hold  it  out  of  culti- 
vation. His  only  obligation  would  be  the  nat- 
ural obligation  that  he  should  not  make  use  of 
the'generosity  of  the  state  as  a  means  of  spec- 
ulation or  to  the  disparagement  of  the  commu- 
nity enterprise. 


CHAPTER  XV 
THE  FARM  COMMUNITY  IN  THE  PAST 

Land  used  for  farming  was  orginally  common 
property  in  England,  Russia,  the  Scandinavian 
countries,  and  probably  in  all  parts  of  Europe. 
Village  ownership  of  the  land  under  the  Mark 
system  was  an  Anglo-Saxon,  Teuton,  Scan- 
dinavian, and  Slavic  institution.  The  land  was 
common  property  in  China,  India,  Mexico, 
Arabia,  and  Peru.  Nearly  one-third  of  the 
land  of  England  was  held  in  common  up  to  the 
end  of  the  eighteenth  century.  The  fields,  grass- 
land, woods,  and  waters  were  used  in  common 
by  all  the  members  of  the  community  under 
a  system  of  rotation  and  allotment,  periodically 
arranged  by  the  village  authorities.  There 
was  no  freehold  ownership  in  the  modern  sense 
of  the  term.  No  one  owned  land.  Use  alone 
gave  the  right  to  possession.  There  was,  how- 
ever, private  property  in  the  homestead,  and  in 
a  small  bit  of  land  round  about  it.  The  peasant 
could  use  his  homestead  as  he  liked,  and  he 

95 


96         TEE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

usually  cultivated  vegetables,  an  orchard,  and 
supplied  his  personal  wants.  All  of  the  land 
outside  of  the  village  belonged  to  the  com- 
munity. No  one  had  any  exclusive  rights  in 
it.  This  common  land  was  rotated  among  the 
villagers  periodically  as  were  the  portions  set 
aside  for  pasture  and  woodland. 

The  village  was  built  to  accommodate  itself 
to  the  system  of  land-tenure.  The  houses  were 
clustered  together.  There  were  no  detached 
farm-buildings.  The  community  was  the  centre 
of  the  farmers'  life. 

The  members  of  the  village  formed  a  kind 
of  co-operative  society.  They  made  their 
own  laws  quite  naturally  to  meet  the  con- 
ditions of  their  life.  The  by-laws  described 
how  the  fields  were  to  be  cultivated,  the  cattle 
cared  for,  etc.  The  villagers  selected  their 
alderman  who  was  the  chief  of  the  village  for 
a  year  or  longer.  He  called  meetings  of  the 
villagers  on  the  village  green,  much  as  is  still 
done  in  some  of  the  cantons  in  Switzerland. 
The  meeting  discussed  such  questions  as  the 
time  when  ploughing,  sowing,  harvesting,  and 
felling  trees  should  begin;  when  the  cattle 
should  be  turned  loose  on  the  stubble;  what 


THE  FARM  COMMUNITY  IN  TEE  PAST   97 

wage  should  be  paid  to  the  workers;  when 
to  turn  the  cows  out  into  common  pasture. 
Complaints  were  heard  at  these  meetings. 
Fines  were  imposed.  One  of  the  functions  of 
the  alderman  was  to  see  that  "no  one  shall 
scold,  swear,  or  call  his  neighbor  names.  He 
who  does  so  shall  pay  for  scolding  or  swearing 
two  shillings,  and  for  calling  names  three 
marks." 

The  roads,  streets,  ponds,  were  all  under 
village  management.  The  village  had,  as  its 
common  property,  its  "village-bull"  and  "vil- 
lage-boar," which  were  kept  by  one  man  for 
a  remuneration,  or  by  different  peasants  in 
rotation. 

"In  many  villages  the  blacksmith  was  a 
kind  of  municipal  officer;  so  also  was  the  school- 
master. In  a  by-law  it  was  provided  that  all 
the  villagers  should  be  mutually  responsible 
for  his  board,  whether  they  had  children  at 
the  school  or  not.  Any  one  refusing  to  do  so 
was  liable  to  a  fine  of  three  marks  to  be  levied, 
if  necessary,  by  distress  and  handed  over  to 
the  village  authorities.  The  old  by-law  some- 
times dealt  with  other  matters,  such  as  the 
duty  of  everybody  to  attend  services  in  church; 
the  duties  of  servants;  the  question  of  fire- 
places and  damage  by  fire;  mutual  aid;  death; 


98         TEE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

disease  among  cattle;  beggars  and  tramps, 
and  the  like.  In  case  of  theft  the  villages  them- 
selves often  fixed  the  punishment. 

"The  village,  therefore,  was  a  miniature 
state  within  the  state,  with  its  alderman,  who 
in  the  larger  villages  was  assisted  by  a  kind 
of  standing  committee;  and  its  own  officers 
such  as  bailiff,  herdsman,  and  others. 

"In  the  district  of  Aarhus  they  said:  'The 
village-bull  and  the  village  blacksmith  are  our 
officers.'  The  alderman  wielded  a  considerable 
power  and  most  by-laws  declared  him  and  his 
helpers  to  be  'holy  and  inviolable,'  when  per- 
forming their  duties.  The  alderman  carried 
'the  village  staff,'  and  'the  village  horn.'  The 
first  was  a  square  rod,  on  which  each  farm  in 
the  village  had  its  division  marked  with  the 
initials  of  the  owner  or  tenant,  and  if  the  peasant 
ever  happened  to  be  fined,  a  notch  was  cut  in 
his  division  on  the  rod.  The  horn  was  used 
for  convening  meetings  or  for  summoning  the 
peasants  in  the  night  in  case  of  fire  or  on  any 
similar  emergency.  The  alderman  kept  the 
written  by-laws  in  his  possession;  it  was  some 
times  stipulated  that  he  was  to  keep  himself 
well  versed  in  the  law,  which  should  be  read 
out  at  the  meetings  at  least  twice  a  year,  or 
at  least  such  articles  of  it  as  had  reference  to 
the  matters  before  the  meeting,  so  that  all 
should  know  the  law.  If  any  one  offended  he 
was  fined,  and  if  he  did  not  pay  his  fine  punc- 
tually it  was  levied  by  distress.  The  amount 
of  the  fines  was  spent  on  feasting  or  merry- 


THE  FARM  COMMUNITY  IN  THE  PAST   99 

making,  and  on  necessary  expenses  of  the  vil- 
lage. 

"It  will  be  seen  from  all  this  that  a  well- 
developed  spirit  of  co-operation  and  home-rule 
existed  in  the  village  communities,  dating  back 
to  very  old  times  and  handed  down  from  genera- 
tion to  generation.  Most  of  the  village  affairs 
were  regulated  by  definite  rules,  the  peasants 
aiding  and  controlling  one  another.  Many 
tasks  were  performed  in  common,  and  few 
were  the  undertakings  which  could  be  carried 
on  except  after  a  joint  decision.  A  humane 
spirit  prevailed  in  the  villages,  and  co-operation 
led  to  many  praiseworthy  undertakings  within 
the  community  and  to  mutual  aid  and  assis- 
tance in  hard  times,  when  crops  failed,  or  when 
sickness  or  fire  ravaged  the  district.  Attendance 
at  church  and  school  was  encouraged,  the  secu- 
rity against  floods,  robbers,  thieves,  or  wild 
animals  was  greater  than  if  each  had  to  fend 
for  himself,  and  a  social  life  was  evolved  which 
undoubtedly  had  a  great  educational  effect."  l 

1  Co-operation  in  Danish  Agriculture,  by  Harald  Faber,  p.  6. 


CHAPTER  XVI 
AMERICA'S  FIRST  COLONY 

California,  the  most  progressive  of  our  States 
and  a  pace-maker  in  many  kinds  of  democratic 
legislation,  is  the  first  American  State  to  de- 
velop the  farm  colony.  She  has  embodied  in 
her  experiment  many  of  the  best  features  of 
other  countries.  Legislation  was  enacted  in 
1918  appropriating  $250,000  for  a  land  settle- 
ment. The  act  authorized  the  purchase  of 
not  to  exceed  10,000  acres  of  land  for  the  pur- 
pose. A  commission  was  appointed,  with 
Professor  Elwood  Mead,  of  the  University  of 
California,  as  its  chairman.  Professor  Mead 
had  lived  in  Australia  and  was  familiar  with 
the  land  legislation  of  other  countries,  as  well 
as  of  the  conditions  that  have  arisen  in  the 
United  States  by  reason  of  our  improvident 
land  policy.  A  tract  of  6,000  acres  was  ac- 
quired in  a  fertile  part  of  the  State,  and  placed 

100 


AMERICA'S  FIRST 


101 


under  cultivation.  Experts  were  employed 
from  the  State  university  to  divide  and  direct 
the  colonies.  It  was  later  divided  into  small 
holdings  and  placed  on  the  market.  The  entire 
settlement,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  tracts, 
was  taken  up  immediately. 

The  development  of  the  colony,  during  the 
first  six  months  of  its  existence,  is  described 
by  Professor  Mead  in  the  first  report  of  the 
Commission  to  the  Governor  of  the  State. 

"The  California  Land  Settlement  Act  is 
significant,  the  report  says,  because  it  eliminates 
speculation.  It  aims  to  create  fixed  communi- 
ties by  anticipating  and  providing  those  things 
essential  to  early  and  enduring  success.  It  is 
also  significant  for  the  manner  in  which  the  ex- 
pert knowledge  and  practical  experience  of  the 
State  has  been  mobilized  to  secure  the  desired 
results. 

"Another  feature  is  the  use  it  makes  of  co- 
operation. The  settlers  are  at  the  outset 
brought  into  close  business  and  social  rela- 
tions. It  reproduces  the  best  feature  of  the 
New  England  town  meeting  as  every  member 
of  the  community  has  a  share  in  the  discus- 
sions and  planning  for  the  general  welfare. 
This  influence  in  rural  life  has  been  lacking  in 
new  communities  in  recent  years.  In  the  great 
movement  of  people  westward,  with  its  profli- 
gate disposal  of  public  land,  settlement  became 


102       THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

migratory  and  speculative.  Every  man  was 
expected  to  look  out  for  himself.  Rural  neigh- 
borhoods became  separated  into  social  and 
economic  strata.  There  was  the  non-resident 
landowner;  the  influential  resident  landowner, 
the  tenant,  aloof  and  indifferent  to  community 
improvements,  and,  below  that,  the  farm- 
laborer  who  had  no  social  status  and  who  in 
recent  years,  because  of  lack  of  opportunity 
and  social  recognition,  has  migrated  into  the 
cities  where  he  could  have  independence  and 
self-respect,  or  has  degenerated  into  a  hobo. 

The  Farm-Laborer. 

"At  Durham,  the  scientific  colony  for  the 
first  time  in  American  land-settlement,  the 
farm-laborer  who  works  for  wages  is  recog- 
nized as  having  as  useful  and  valuable  part 
in  rural  economy  as  the  farm-owner.  The 
provisions  made  for  his  home  are  intended  to 
give  to  his  wife  and  children  comfort,  inde- 
pendence and  self-respect.  In  other  words, 
the  things  that  help  create  character  and  sus- 
tain patriotism.  The  farm-laborer's  homes 
already  built  are  one  of  the  most  attractive 
features  of  the  settlement,  and  when  the  colony 
members  gather  together,  as  they  do,  to  dis- 
cuss matters  that  affect  the  progress  of  the 
settlement,  or  to  arrange  for  co-operative  buy- 
ing and  selling,  the  farm-laborer  and  his  family 
are  active  and  respected  members  of  the  meet- 
ings." 


AMERICA'S  FIRST  COLONY  103 

Objects  of  the  Colony. 

The  California  Land  Settlement  Act  aims 
to  promote  agricultural  development,  and  the 
ownership  of  farms  by  their  cultivators,  by — 

1.  Lessening  the  expense  of  subdivision  and 
settlement  of  large  estates. 

2.  Providing   the   money   or   credit   needed 
to  improve  and  equip  farms. 

3.  Reducing  the  cost  of  farm-buildings  and 
other   permanent   improvements   by  the   pur- 
chase of  material  at  wholesale  and  for  cash. 

4.  Giving  beginners  practical  advice  about 
farming  operations,  and  thus  preventing  costly 
mistakes     and    the    waste    of     money     and 
time. 

5.  Making  farming  more  profitable  and  at- 
tractive  by  the   creation   of  co-operative   or- 
ganization,  and  thus  bringing  neighborhoods 
into  closer  social  and  business  relations. 

6.  Creating  better  living  conditions  for  farm- 
laborers  and  their  families. 

The  limit  of  this  demonstration  was  fixed 
at  10,000  acres.  It  might  be  confined  to  one 
locality.  It  could  not  profitably  include  more 
than  two  localities  because  the  Act  contem- 
plates group  or  community  settlement  and 


104       THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

because  overhead  expenses  are  increased  with 
each  settlement.  The  board  decided  that  the 
demonstration  would  be  more  instructive  if 
made  in  two  localities. 

Review  of  Board's  Operations. 

The  board  was  appointed  in  August,  1917, 
and  organized  at  Berkeley  on  the  last  day  of 
that  month.  Landowners  were  notified  that 
it  was  ready  to  purchase  from  4,000  to  6,000 
acres  of  farm-land  suited  to  intensive  culti- 
vation. Dean  Thomas  F.  Hunt,  of  the  College 
of  Agriculture,  was  asked  to  advise  the  board 
regarding  the  relative  merits  of  the  different 
tracts  offered,  and  he  delegated  the  examina- 
tion of  these  lands  to  Professor  C.  F.  Shaw, 
professor  of  soil  technology  of  the  University 
of  California.  Forty  tracts  located  in  all  sec- 
tions of  the  State,  from  Modoc  County  to  Im- 
perial, were  examined.  A  considerable  number 
were  well  suited  to  the  board's  purpose,  and 
Professor  Shaw  was  asked  to  indicate  the  three 
most  desirable  tracts,  and  these  three  were,  at 
the  conclusion  of  the  investigation,  inspected 
by  Dean  Hunt  and  the  board.  .  .  .  The  result 
was  the  purchase  of  the  tract  now  known  as 


AMERICA'S  FIRST  COLONY  105 

the  State  Land  Settlement  at  Durham,  Butte 
County,  California. 

Preliminary  Investigations  to  Insure  Success  of 
the  Enterprise. 

Before  the  land  was  purchased,  the  board 
drew  largely  on  the  technical  experience  of  the 
university  and  other  public  authorities  in 
gathering  information  about  conditions  which 
would  affect  the  health  and  success  of  the  pro- 
posed community.  Frank  Adams,  professor 
of  irrigation  investigation  in  the  State  Uni- 
versity, advised  the  board  regarding  the  suit- 
ability of  the  land  for  irrigation  and  the  cost 
of  constructing  irrigation  works.  Professor 
W.  B.  Herms  reported  on  health  conditions, 
and  advised  the  creation  of  a  mosquito  abate- 
ment district  to  counteract  any  possible  ill 
effects  of  irrigation.  The  district  has  been 
created.  The  chairman  of  the  State  Water 
Commission  reported  that  the  water-supply 
was  adequate.  The  supervisors  of  Butte 
County  and  the  water-users  from  Butte  Creek 
co-operated  with  the  board  in  settling  by  agree- 
ment, the  rights  to  water  for  irrigation  from 
Butte  Creek,  thus  ending  a  long  and  costly 


io6       THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

litigation  over  these  rights,  and  the  attorney- 
general  made  the  necessary  investigations  of 
titles  of  the  land  and  of  rights  to  water,  to  in- 
sure the  legality  of  the  proposed  transfer. 

These  various  investigations  and  the  settle- 
ment of  water-rights  took  time,  and  it  was 
not  until  May  7,  1918,  that  all  of  the  pre- 
liminaries had  been  completed  and  the  land 
finally  transferred  to  the  State.  Through  the 
assistance  of  the  Bureau  of  Good  Roads  and 
Rural  Engineering,  United  States  Department 
of  Agriculture,  a  contour  map  of  the  property 
was  made  before  the  final  transfer  and  plans 
for  the  irrigation  system  based  on  this  had 
been  prepared.  The  land  was  subdivided  while 
the  arrangements  for  the  transfer  of  the  prop- 
erty were  being  completed  and  a  large  acreage 
was  levelled  and  seeded.  The  board  was  able, 
therefore,  without  delay,  to  offer  settlers  farms 
on  which  crops  were  growing  and  on  which 
a  considerable  area  had  been  made  ready  for 
irrigation.  Some  of  the  land  was  leased,  but 
the  available  land  was,  on  May  15,  1918,  of- 
fered for  settlement  under  the  following  con- 
ditions: 


AMERICA'S  FIRST  COLONY  107 

Method  of  Payment. 

Settlers  were  to  pay  5  per  cent,  of  the  cost 
of  the  land  and  40  per  cent,  of  the  cost  of  the 
improvements  at  the  time  of  purchase,  the 
remainder  of  the  purchase  price  to  extend  over 
a  period  of  twenty  years  with  interest  at  the 
rate  of  5  per  cent,  per  annum.  Payments  on 
principal  and  interest  to  be  made  semi-annually 
in  accord  with  the  amortization  table  of  the 
Federal  Farm  Loan  Board,  the  settler  to  re- 
ceive a  contract  of  purchase  which  set  forth 
the  conditions  of  payment  and  the  obligation 
he  assumed,  deed  to  the  land  to  be  given  when 
payments  were  completed. 

The  ditching  and  levelling  of  land  were 
treated  as  permanent  improvements  and  the 
settler  paid  40  per  cent,  of  the  cost.  Plough- 
ing and  seeding  of  land  to  grain  was  regarded 
as  temporary  improvements  and  the  settler 
paid  the  cost  in  cash. 

Settlers  who  intended  to  have  live  stock 
were  required  to  form  a  co-operative  stock- 
breeders' association  and  agree  to  have  nothing 
but  pure-bred  sires  in  the  settlement,  the  board 
agreeing  to  extend  aid  in  the  purchase  of  these 
if  proved  necessary. 


io8       THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

No  settler  who  had  less  than  $1,500  capital, 
or  a  working  equipment  of  implements  or  live 
stock  the  equivalent  of  such  capital,  was  re- 
garded as  eligible  to  purchase  a  farm,  and  set- 
tlers were  advised  that  $2,500  to  $3,000  was  a 
better  sum  for  those  contemplating  the  pur- 
chase of  a  farm  allotment  comprising  40  acres 
or  more. 

There  were  no  requirements  as  to  capital 
on  the  part  of  farm-laborers.  It  was  expected 
that  the  savings  from  wages  would  be  sufficient 
to  meet  the  payments,  as  these  would  be  less 
than  the  rental  of  a  house  in  town. 

Genera*  Conditions  Required  by  the  Land  Settle- 
ment Act. 

Lands  must  be  sold  either  as  farm  allotments, 
each  of  which  shall  have  a  value  not  exceed- 
ing, without  improvements,  fifteen  thousand 
($15,000)  dollars,  or  as  farm-laborer's  allot- 
ments, each  of  which  shall  have  a  value  not 
exceeding,  without  improvements,  four  hun- 
dred ($400)  dollars. 

Applicants  must  be  citizens  of  the  United 
States,  or  have  declared  their  intention  to 
become  citizens. 


AMERICA'S  FIRST  COLONY  109 

The  State  Land  Settlement  Board  reserves 
the  right  to  reject  any  or  all  applications  it 
may  see  fit  to  reject. 

Settlers  must  be  prepared  to  enter  within 
six  (6)  months,  upon  actual  occupation  of  the 
land  acquired. 

No  more  than  one  farm  allotment  or  farm- 
laborer's  allotment  shall  be  sold  to  any  one 
person. 

The  repayment  of  loans,  which  may  by  the 
board  be  made  to  settlers  on  live  stock  or  im- 
plements may  extend  over  a  period  of  five 
(5)  years. 

Every  contract  entered  into  between  the 
board  and  an  approved  purchaser  shall  con- 
tain, among  other  things,  provisions  that  the 
purchaser  shall  cultivate  the  land  in  a  manner 
to  be  approved  by  the  board  and  shall  keep 
in  good  order  and  repair  all  buildings,  fences, 
and  other  permanent  improvements  situated 
on  his  allotment,  reasonable  wear  and  tear 
and  damage  by  fire  excepted. 

Each  settler  shall,  if  required,  insure  and 
keep  insured  against  fire  all  buildings  on  his 
allotment,  the  policies  therefor  to  be  made  out 
in  favor  of  the  board,  and  to  be  such  amount 


io8       THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

No  settler  who  had  less  than  $1,500  capital, 
or  a  working  equipment  of  implements  or  live 
stock  the  equivalent  of  such  capital,  was  re- 
garded as  eligible  to  purchase  a  farm,  and  set- 
tlers were  advised  that  $2,500  to  $3,000  was  a 
better  sum  for  those  contemplating  the  pur- 
chase of  a  farm  allotment  comprising  40  acres 
or  more. 

There  were  no  requirements  as  to  capital 
on  the  part  of  farm-laborers.  It  was  expected 
that  the  savings  from  wages  would  be  sufficient 
to  meet  the  payments,  as  these  would  be  less 
than  the  rental  of  a  house  in  town. 

Genera*  Conditions  Required  by  the  Land  Settle- 
ment Act. 

Lands  must  be  sold  either  as  farm  allotments, 
each  of  which  shall  have  a  value  not  exceed- 
ing, without  improvements,  fifteen  thousand 
($15,000)  dollars,  or  as  farm-laborer's  allot- 
ments, each  of  which  shall  have  a  value  not 
exceeding,  without  improvements,  four  hun- 
dred ($400)  dollars. 

Applicants  must  be  citizens  of  the  United 
States,  or  have  declared  their  intention  to 
become  citizens. 


AMERICA'S  FIRST  COLONY  109 

The  State  Land  Settlement  Board  reserves 
the  right  to  reject  any  or  all  applications  it 
may  see  fit  to  reject. 

Settlers  must  be  prepared  to  enter  within 
six  (6)  months,  upon  actual  occupation  of  the 
land  acquired. 

No  more  than  one  farm  allotment  or  farm- 
laborer's  allotment  shall  be  sold  to  any  one 
person. 

The  repayment  of  loans,  which  may  by  the 
board  be  made  to  settlers  on  live  stock  or  im- 
plements may  extend  over  a  period  of  five 
(5)  years. 

Every  contract  entered  into  between  the 
board  and  an  approved  purchaser  shall  con- 
tain, among  other  things,  provisions  that  the 
purchaser  shall  cultivate  the  land  in  a  manner 
to  be  approved  by  the  board  and  shall  keep 
in  good  order  and  repair  all  buildings,  fences, 
and  other  permanent  improvements  situated 
on  his  allotment,  reasonable  wear  and  tear 
and  damage  by  fire  excepted. 

Each  settler  shall,  if  required,  insure  and 
keep  insured  against  fire  all  buildings  on  his 
allotment,  the  policies  therefor  to  be  made  out 
in  favor  of  the  board,  and  to  be  such  amount 


no       THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

or  amounts  and  in  such  insurance  companies  as 
may  be  prescribed  by  the  board. 

No  allotment  sold  under  the  provisions  of 
this  act  shall  be  transferred,  assigned,  mort- 
gaged or  sublet,  in  whole  or  in  part,  within 
fiye  (5)  years  after  the  date  of  such  contract, 
without  the  consent  of  the  board  given  in  writ- 
ing. 

At  the  expiration  of  five  (5)  years  after  the 
purchase  of  an  allotment,  if  the  board  is  satis- 
fied that  all  covenants  and  conditions  of  the 
contract  covering  such  allotment  purchase 
have  been  complied  with,  the  purchaser  may, 
with  the  written  consent  of  the  board,  transfer, 
assign,  mortgage,  sublet,  or  part  with  the  pos- 
session of  the  whole  or  any  part  of  the  allot- 
ment covered  by  such  contract. 

In  the  event  of  a  failure  of  the  settler  to 
comply  with  any  of  the  terms  of  his  contract 
of  purchase  and  agreement  with  the  board,  the 
State  and  the  board  shall  have  the  right  at 
its  option  to  cancel  the  said  contract  of  pur- 
chase and  agreement,  and  thereupon  shall  be 
released  from  all  obligation  in  law  or  equity 
to  convey  the  property,  and  the  settler  shall 
forfeit  all  right  thereto,  and  all  payments  there- 


AMERICA'S  FIRST  COLONY  in 

tofore  made  shall  be  deemed  to  be  rental  paid 
for  occupancy. 

The  failure  of  the  board  or  the  State  to  exer- 
cise any  option  to  cancel  for  any  default  shall 
not  be  deemed  as  a  waiver  of  the  right  to  exer- 
cise the  option  to  cancel  for  any  default  there- 
after on  the  settler's  part. 

No  forfeiture  occasioned  by  default  on  the 
part  of  the  settler  shall  be  deemed  in  any  way, 
or  to  any  extent,  to  impair  the  lien  and  secu- 
rity of  the  mortgage  or  trust  instrument  secur- 
ing any  loan  that  the  board  may  have  made 
as  in  the  Land  Settlement  Act  provided. 

The  board  shall  have  the  right  and  power 
to  enter  into  a  contract  of  purchase  for  the 
sale  and  disposition  of  any  land  forfeited,  be- 
cause of  default  on  the  part  of  a  settler. 

Actual  residence  on  any  allotment  sold  shall 
commence  within  six  (6)  months  from  the  date 
of  the  approval  of  the  application,  and  shall 
continue  for  at  least  eight  (8)  months  in  each 
calendar  year  for  at  least  ten  (10)  years  from 
the  date  of  the  approval  of  the  said  applica- 
tion, unless  prevented  by  illness  or  some  other 
cause  satisfactory  to  the  board;  provided,  that 
in  case  any  farm  allotment  disposed  of  is  re- 


H2       THE  LAND  AND  TEE  SOLDIER 

sold  by  the  State,  the  time  of  residence  of  the 
preceding  purchaser  may  in  the  discretion  of 
the  board  be  credited  to  the  subsequent  pur- 
chaser. 

Things  the  Board  Desires  to  See  Achieved. 

1.  The   settlement   to   become   widely   and 
favorably  known  as  the  home  of  one  breed  of 
dairy-cattle,  one  breed  of  beef-cattle,  one  breed 
of  hogs,  and  one  or  two  breeds  of  sheep. 

2.  The  co-operation  of  the  settlers  in  buy- 
ing and  selling. 

3.  The  establishment  at  Durham  or  on  the 
settlement  land  of  a  training-school  in  agri- 
culture. 

4.  The  erection  in  the  near  future  of  a  social 
hall  owned  and  paid  for  by  settlers. 

Allotment  of  Land  to  Settlers,  June  15, 1918. 

Although  June  is  not  a  satisfactory  month 
in  which  to  settle  land,  there  were  more  than 
twice  as  many  applicants  as  farms,  there  being 
from  10  to  14  applicants  for  each  of  the  farms 
best  improved.  There  were,  however,  a  few 
farms  on  which  no  land  had  been  levelled  or 
planted  to  crops.  Four  of  these  farms  were 


AMERICA'S  FIRST  COLONY  113 

unapplied  for.  They  will  be  seeded  and  again 
offered  to  settlers  at  the  opening  of  the  next 
unit.  All  of  the  farm-laborers'  allotments  were 
applied  for  and  are  now  occupied. 

The  payments  made  by  settlers,  the  income 
from  interest  and  rentals  made  this  investment 
self -sustaining  and  reproductive  within  60  days 
after  the  land  had  been  purchased.  The  State 
will  receive  back  all  the  money  advanced  with  in- 
terest. The  main  duty  of  the  board  is,  therefore, 
to  promote  the  success  of  settlers  who  show  in- 
dustry and  thrift. 

Some  of  the  applicants  who  failed  to  secure 
farms  in  June,  have  applied  for  farms  in  the 
unit  to  be  allotted  in  November,  and  there 
are  now  on  file  enough  applications  to  fully 
absorb  this  unit. 

Some  of  the  settlers  were  unable  to  get  their 
equipment  on  the  ground  in  time  to  harvest 
their  grain-crops;  in  such  cases  the  board  har- 
vested the  crop  and  turned  the  land  over  to 
the  settler  after  harvesting.  The  areas  that 
were  harvested  by  the  board  brought  it  a  profit 
of  over  $2,000,000. 

The  crops  above  enumerated  were  nearly 
all  sold,  and  the  money  therefor  received  by 


H4       THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

the  settler  inside  of  six  weeks  after  the  farms 
were  allotted.  Much  larger  acreage  returns 
have  since  been  obtained  by  settlers  from  farms 
on  which  alfalfa  was  growing. 

Aid  to  Settlers  in  Erection  of  Houses  and  Arrange- 
ment of  Farms. 

Through  the  co-operation  of  the  State  En- 
gineering Department,  Mr.  R.  E.  Backus, 
architect,  was  detailed  to  help  prepare  plans 
for  settlers'  houses,  and  the  board  employed 
Mr.  M.  E.  Cook,  a  farmstead  engineer,  to  pre- 
pare plans  and  specifications  and  supervise 
the  erection  of  houses  and  other  farm-buildings 
and  to  help  settlers  plan  the  grouping  of  build- 
ings, orchard,  garden,  and  field  for  the  most 
convenient  conduct  of  farming-operations. 

Here  is  a  field  of  rural  planning  which  has 
been  greatly  neglected,  and  where  expert  knowl- 
edge and  experience  can  be  used  to  the  greatest 
advantage.  If  nothing  had  been  done  for  the 
settlers  and  each  had  been  left  to  do  these 
things  unaided,  there  would  have  been  85 
heads  of  families  who  would  have  been  com- 
pelled to  drop  their  farm-operations,  at  a  period 
when  every  day  was  needed  for  the  harvesting 


AMERICA'S  FIRST  COLONY  115 

or  planting  of  crops,  and  go  abroad  to  find 
carpenters;  to  buy  lumber  and  hardware,  and 
induce  well-borers  and  plumbers  to  come  out 
from  town,  and  attend  to  their  individual  needs. 
Many  of  these  settlers  were  not  familiar  with 
local  conditions  or  prices;  they  did  not  know 
how  to  buy  to  advantage;  they  would  have 
had  to  buy  from  people  who  would  not  know 
whether  they  were  good  or  poor  pay,  and  they 
would  have  been  under  pressure  to  buy  quickly. 
The  result  of  such  conditions  would  have  been 
delay  in  planting  and  harvesting  crops  and 
hastily  built,  poorly  planned  houses,  some  of 
them  shacks,  an  eyesore  to  their  neighbors, 
and  all  costing  more  than  they  should. 

By  letting  the  contracts  for  wells  in  groups 
of  10,  buying  cement,  pipe,  fence-posts,  fence- 
wire,  and  lumber  in  car-load  lots,  by  buying 
seed-grain  and  other  equipment  co-operatively, 
this  settlement  has  saved,  on  the  time  of  its 
members  and  on  the  actual  cost  of  materials 
secured,  fully  25  per  cent,  of  the  outlay  which 
would  have  been  inevitable  if  each  settler  had 
worked  alone. 


n6       THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

Group  Settlement.    Reservation  for  School  and  a 
Community  Centre. 

A  reservation  of  22  acres  to  be  used  for  com- 
munity purposes  has  been  made.  Here  it  is 
hoped  that  arrangements  can  be  made  for  a 
vocational  school  of  agriculture.  There  will 
be  ample  room  for  experimental  plots,  picnic- 
grounds,  a  social  hall,  and  a  community  ware- 
house. 

The  commission  has  since  acquired  a  second 
estate  which  is  being  opened  to  settlers  under 
arrangements  similar  to  those  described.  . 


CHAPTER  XVII 

AN  EXPERIMENT  STATION  IN 
FARMING 

Denmark  has  developed  constructive  ideas 
in  agriculture,  and  state  aid  to  farmers  farther 
than  any  nation  in  the  world.  It  has  in  fact 
become  a  great  agricultural  experimental  sta- 
tion. The  farmer  is  the  first  concern  of  the 
state.  There  is  little  industry.  For  forty  years 
parliament,  education,  and  thousands  of  co- 
operative associations  have  been  working  to 
increase  the  productiveness  of  the  farm  and 
improve  the  quality  of  its  produce.  Just  as 
other  countries  have  devoted  themselves  to 
the  upbuilding  of  industry  and  commerce, 
Denmark  has  devoted  herself  to  the  produc- 
tion of  food,  and  to  its  marketing  with  the 
least  possible  loss  to  the  farmers. 

As  a  result  of  these  efforts,  Denmark  has 
become  very  prosperous.  Her  people  enjoy 
a  high  degree  of  comfort.  There  is  a  higher 
standard  of  education  than  in  any  country  of 

Europe.     Illiteracy  is  only  .002  per  cent.     A 

117 


n8       TEE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

unique  educational  system  has  been  evolved 
that  has  commanded  the  admiration  of  experts 
from  England  and  America.  Every  well-to-do 
peasant  expects  to  spend  at  least  one  period 
at  the  people's  high  schools. 

Tenancy  is  being  ended  by  legislation.  Two 
generations  ago,  42.5  per  cent,  of  the  farmers 
owned  their  farms.  To-day,  89.9  per  cent,  of 
the  farmers  are  owners.  This  has  been  achieved 
in  large  part  by  the  state  providing  money  at 
a  low  rate  of  interest,  with  which  large  estates 
are  purchased,  and  broken  up  into  small  hold- 
ings, to  be  sold  to  tenants  and  farm-laborers 
on  easy  terms.  Fourteen  thousand  farms  have 
been  provided  in  this  way  since  1900.  Their 
average  size  is  from  seven  to  ten  acres.  The 
total  capital  advanced  by  the  state  up  to  1914 
was  $18,500,000.  Farm  foreclosures  of  the 
small  state-aided  holdings  are  uncommon. 
And  they  have  steadily  decreased  in  recent 
years. 

From  Bankruptcy  to  Prosperity. 

All  this  has  been  brought  about  in  a  very 
short  time.  It  began  about  1880.  The  Danish 
farmer  was  being  driven  to  the  wall  by  the 


EXPERIMENT  STATION  IN  FARMING     119 

competition  of  the  wheat-fields  of  America 
and  the  tariff  legislation  of  Germany.  To 
meet  these  conditions  he  turned  his  attention 
from  wheat-growing  to  the  production  of  bacon, 
eggs,  poultry,  butter,  and  fine  stock.  Small- 
scale  production  was  substituted  for  large- 
scale  production.  To-day,  Denmark  helps  to 
feed  England.  There  is  but  little  emigration 
out  of  the  country,  for  any  tenant  or  farm- 
laborer  who  has  shown  the  proper  attitude 
for  farming,  can  secure  sufficient  aid  from  the 
state  to  buy  a  small  farm.  All  he  has  to  do  is 
to  satisfy  the  state  of  his  intelligence  and  abil- 
ity, and  put  up  10  per  cent,  of  the  cost  him- 
self. The  state  supplies  the  balance.  He  is 
given  sixty  years  in  which  to  make  repayments. 
The  exports  from  Denmark  indicate  the 
rapidity  with  which  the  country  has  responded 
to  this  new  type  of  agriculture.  In  thirty  years' 
time,  from  1881  to  1912,  the  value  of  her 
exports  increased  from  $12,000,000  to  $125,- 
000,000.  Speaking  of  this  development,  Honor- 
able P.  P.  Claxton,  in  an  introduction  to  a 
report  on  the  Danish  Folk  High  Schools,  by 
H.  W.  Foght,  published  by  the  United  States 
Bureau  of  Education  in  1914,  says: 


120       TEE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

"Waste  and  worn-out  lands  have  been  re- 
claimed and  renewed.  Co-operation  in  produc- 
tion and  marketing  has  become  more  common 
than  in  any  other  country.  Landlordism  and 
farm-tenantry  have  almost  disappeared.  Rural 
social  life  has  become  intelligent,  organic,  and 
attractive.  A  high  type  of  idealism  has  been 
devised  among  the  masses  of  the  people.  A 
real  democracy  has  been  established.  This  js 
the  out-growth  of  an  educational  system,  uni- 
versal, practical,  and  democratic/' 


Increasing  Wealth  Production. 

The  change  which  has  come  over  the  coun- 
try and  especially  over  agriculture  is  a  stand- 
ing demonstration  of  what  can  be  done  on 
the  land.  There  is  no  similar  exhibit  of  the 
wealth  that  can  be  taken  from  a  small  piece 
of  land,  or  of  the  civilization  that  can  be  built 
about  intensive,  scientific  agriculture.  The 
following  figures  indicate  the  increasing  pros- 
perity of  the  country: 

Average  exports  of  bacon,  butter,  eggs, 
horses,  and  cattle  from  1857  to  1908: 


1857-1879 $14,500,000 

1895-1899 50,909,000 

1908 88,850,000 

1913 125,000,000 


EXPERIMENT  STATION  IN  FARMING    121 

The   exports   in   quantities   are   even   more 
striking: 


AVERAGE  FOR  YEARS 

Toxt  BUTTER 

TONS  HAMS 
AND  BACON 

EGOS  1000 
GT.  HUMDS. 

1881-1885 

15,630 

7,940 

478 

1891-1895 

48,070 

41,270 

1,243 

1901-1905 

96,044 

76,390 

3,531 

I9II-I9I5 

99,420 

128,840 

3,596 

The  average  export  trade  alone  for  each 
farm,  most  of  which  are  small,  is  $500  a  year. 
For  the  country  as  a  whole  it  amounts  to  $12.50 
an  acre. 

Land  Distribution. 

In  this  little  country,  twice  the  size  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, there  are  250,000  farms,  of  which 
180,000  are  less  than  37  acres,  while  of  these 
133,500  are  less  than  12  acres  in  extent.  There 
are  68,380  farms  of  less  than  l%  acres. 

These  are  the  economic  aspects  of  intensive 
agriculture,  aided  and  encouraged  by  the  state, 
and  developed  along  co-operative  and  modern 
industrial  lines. 

As  a  result  of  home-ownership,  small  farms, 
a  secure  market,  and  freedom  from  exploita- 


122       THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

tion,   other   and   even   more   important  gains 
have  come.    Among  them  are: 

(1)  Voluntary    co-operation    has    developed 
until  practically  the  entire  economic  life  of 
the  farmer  is  in  the  hands  of  the  farmers  them- 
selves.   All  told,  there  are  4,000  co-operative 
producing    and    selling    agencies.      There    are 
1,200  co-operative  dairies,  and  44  co-operative 
slaughter-houses.     The  farmer  does  his   own 
banking  in  part  at  least.    He  gathers  and  sells 
his  eggs,  sends  them  to  Copenhagen,  where 
they  are  packed,  and  placed  in  the  hands  of 
the  retail-dealer  in  England,  without  the  aid 
of  any  middleman.    The  same  is  true  of  bacon 
and  hams.    Insurance  of  many  kinds  is  handled 
through  co-operative  insurance  agencies,  as  is 
the  control  of  almost  everything  the  farmer 
buys.    There  are  over  2,000  co-operative  retail 
stores  in  the  country  districts  alone,  with  great 
central  warehouses  and  factories  for  the  pro- 
duction of  goods  of  various  kinds. 

(2)  Education    has    been    developed    until 
the  peasant  looks  upon  a  high  school  and  an 
agricultural  training  for  his  son  and  his  daughter 
as  a  matter  of  course.    There  are  100  people's 
high   schools   in   this   little   country  with  but 


EXPERIMENT  STATION  IN  FARMING    123 

2,500,000  people.  The  Danes  are  a  highly  cul- 
tured nation,  and  they  prize  learning  for  its 
own  sake. 

(3)  Agriculture  has  become  an  art.     It  is 
highly  specialized.     Cattle,  horses,  hogs,  and 
chickens  are  studied  and  bred  with  the  greatest 
care.    And  they  bring  fancy  prices. 

(4)  The  farmers  have  practically  abolished 
tenancy  in  fifty  years'  time,  less  than  10  per 
cent,  of  the  farms  to-day  being  operated  by 
tenants. 

(5)  The  farmers  have  also  organized  polit- 
ically.   They  have  a  party  of  their  own.    For 
more  than  a  dozen  years  they  have  controlled 
the  lower  house  of  Parliament.     They  have 
not  used  their  power  to  create  special  privileges, 
but  to  abolish  them.     They  have  reduced  in- 
direct taxes.     The  tariff  has  been  lowered  to 
an  average  of  5  per  cent.     The  railways  are 
operated  as  an  agency  for  the  upbuilding  of 
the  state,  while  social  legislation  of  the  most 
advanced  sort  has  been  placed  on  the  statute- 
books. 

Denmark  is  contented,  prosperous,  and  well- 
educated.  And  these  conditions  have  been 
brought  about  through  the  changing  of  the 


124       THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

economic  environment  of  agriculture,  and  espe- 
cially the  introduction  of  home-ownership  and 
the  promotion  of  state-aided  farms.  Denmark 
is  in  effect  a  nation  organized  upon  the  Farm- 
Colony  idea.  It  is  a  nation  of  home-owning 
farmers.1 

1  For  further  reference  to  the  development  of  Denmark,  see  the 
following  works:  Co-operation  in  Danish  Agriculture,  by  Harold 
Faber,  1918;  Denmark  and  the  Danes,  by  Harvey;  Special  Re- 
port of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Education  on  Danish  Folk  High 
Schools,  1914.  Lectures  of  Honorable  Maurice  Francis  Eagan, 
published  by  United  States  Senate,  Document  Number  992, 
fed  Congress,  3d  Session,  1913. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 
THE  FARM  COLONY  IN  AUSTRALIA 

The  most  fruitful  field  for  study  of  land- 
settlement  operations  is  Australia.  Between 
1901  and  1914  the  six  Australian  states  pur- 
chased and  subdivided  3^056,957  acres  of  land 
for  which  $55,243,125  was  paid,  or  about  $iS 
an  acre.  In  all  of  the  states  provision  is  made 
to  assist  settlers  to  build  homes,  and  effect 
improvements  needed  to  bring  the  land  fully 
and  promptly  under  cultivation. 

In  the  five-year  period  from  1909  to  1914 
the  Australian  states  loaned  to  farmers,  to  make 
improvements  and  buy  equipment,  $68,029,500. 
This  has  been  done  without  any  cost  to  the 
taxpayer,  as  the  interest  paid  by  the  farmers 
was  greater  than  the  interest  paid  by  the  state; 
the  farmers  have  met  payments  of  principal 
and  interest,  so  that  there  has  been  a  profit 
accumulated  of  $1,233,370. 

The  state  of  Victoria  has  purchased  567,687 
125 


126       TEE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

acres  of  land,  the  purchase  price  being  about 
$37  an  acre.  About  15  per  cent,  of  the  pur- 
chase price  was  necessary  to  cover  expenses 
of  supervision  and  settlement.  The  average 
price  to  settlers  has  been  about  $45  an  acre. 
The  land  so  bought  has  been  disposed  of  as 
follows:  500,819  acres  in  farm  allotments; 
8,829  acres  as  agricultural  laborers'  allotments; 
all  told,  4,112  settlers  have  secured  farms  under 
these  acts. 

Applicants,  male  or  female,  must  be  over 
the  age  of  eighteen  years.  The  maximum  value 
of  land  which  may  be  held  by  one  lessee  is 
$12,000,  except  in  the  case  of  an  allotment 
where  a  valuable  homestead  is  erected,  when 
the  value  of  the  land  may  be  increased  to 
$19,200. 

Agricultural  laborers'  allotments  in  value 
up  to  $1,680  are  sold  under  a  conditional  pur- 
chase lease  having  a  term  of  31^  years.  Ap- 
plicants are  required  to  lodge  a  deposit  equal 
to  3  per  cent,  of  the  capital  value  of  the  land 
applied  for.  In  the  case  of  a  farm-holding 
residence  upon  the  allotment,  or  upon  the  estate 
of  which  the  allotment  forms  a  part,  or  upon 
land  adjoining  the  estate,  and  not  separated 


THE  FARM  COLONY  IN  AUSTRALIA      127 

from  it  by  more  than  a  road  or  watercourse, 
is  compulsory  for  eight  months  in  each  year. 

It  is  a  condition  of  the  lease  of  a  farm  allot- 
ment that  permanent  and  substantial  improve- 
ments to  an  amount  equivalent  to  6  per  cent, 
of  the  capital  value  of  the  land  shall  be  effected 
by  the  lessee  before  the  end  of  the  first  year. 
Before  the  end  of  the  third  year  the  value  of 
the  improvements  must  be  increased  to  10 
per  cent.,  and  by  the  end  of  the  sixth  year  to 
a  total  value  of  20  per  cent,  of  the  capital  value 
of  the  land. 

Describing  the  land-settlement  act  in  1914, 
the  Premier  of  Victoria  said: 

"The  final  success  of  this  investment  de- 
pends on  the  returns  which  can  be  obtained, 
and  in  this  respect  the  state  stands  in  an  en- 
tirely different  position  from  that  occupied 
five  years  ago  when  it  made  intense  culture, 
combined  with  closer  settlement,  the  basis  of 
future  development.  Then  it  was  an  experi- 
ment, the  success  of  which  was  doubted  by 
many;  now  it  is  a  demonstrated  success.  Over 
large  areas  in  widely  separated  districts  more 
than  ten  times  as  many  families  are  settled 
comfortably,  under  attractive  social  conditions, 
as  were  there  five  years  ago,  and  they  are  ob- 
taining returns  from  their  holdings  that  even 


128       TEE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

less  than  five  years  ago  were  regarded  as  im- 
possible. The  demonstration  that  families 
can  be  fully  employed  and  obtain  a  comfortable 
living  on  from  twenty  to  forty  acres  of  irrigable 
land  not  only  insures  the  financial  success  of 
our  investment  in  irrigation  works,  but  gives 
a  new  conception  of  the  ultimate  population 
which  this  state  will  support  and  the  agricul- 
tural wealth  which  it  will  produce." 

Doctor  Edward  Mead  of  the  University  of 
California,  who  is  thoroughly  familiar  with 
the  land  colony  projects  of  the  Australian  state, 
says  of  them: 

"These  settlements  have  proven  such  agri- 
cultural and  economic  successes  that,  in  the 
midst  of  war,  the  Australian  Commonwealth 
has  appropriated  $100,000,000  to  buy  and 
make  ready  farms  for  returning  soldiers.  This, 
for  a  population  of  5,000,000,  is  equivalent  to 
an  appropriation  of  $2,000,000,000  in  this 
country.  It  has  succeeded  because  the  plan 
is  practical.  It  has  been  worked  out  from  a 
business,  as  well  as  a  humanitarian  standpoint. 
It  is  sound  business  because  of  the  money  and 
time  it  saves  settlers.  Take  the  item  of  houses 
and  barns.  Over  5,000  of  these  buildings  will 
be  needed  on  this  assumed  project — the  plans 
for  them  are  standardized,  materials  are  bought 
at  wholesale,  and  contracts  for  their  erection 
are  let  in  large  numbers  so  that  builders  can 


THE  FARM  COLONY  IN  AUSTRALIA      129 

keep  their  men  constantly  at  work.  The  care 
given  to  the  designs  insures  better  buildings 
and  better  grouping,  and  the  settler  pays  about 
half  the  price  he  would  have  to  pay  if  he  worked 
as  an  unaided  individual. 

"  Expert  help  in  buying  enables  him  to  get 
better  horses  and  cows  than  he  otherwise  would 
obtain.  A  farm  prepared  to  grow  crops  en- 
ables him  to  make  more  money  in  the  first 
two  years  than  he  would  in  five  years  if  he 
had  to  level  the  land." 

The  Canadian  commission  gives  the  fol- 
lowing report  of  the  effects  of  such  settlement 
policies  on  rural  life  in  New  Zealand,  and  the 
same  holds  true  in  practically  all  countries 
where  such  a  system  has  been  introduced: 

"With  money  available  on  terms  suitable 
to  the  industry,  the  farmers  have  built  better 
houses  or  remodelled  their  old  ones;  brought 
a  large  acreage  of  land  under  cultivation  that 
would  otherwise  be  lying  idle;  have  bought 
and  kept  better  live  stock;  have  bought  and 
used  more  labor-saving  machinery  on  the  farms 
and  in  the  houses;  have  erected  elevated  tanks 
and  windmills;  have  piped  water  to  their  dwel- 
lings and  to  their  outbuildings;  have  irrigation 
for  their  vegetable  and  flower  gardens  around 
the  houses;  and  have  increased  their  dairy- 
herds.  They  keep  more  sheep  and  pigs  and 
have  so  largely  increased  the  revenue  from 


130      TEE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

their  farms  that  they  are  able  to  meet  the  pay- 
ments on  the  mortgages,  and  to  adopt  a  higher 
standard  of  living,  and  a  better  one.  Through- 
put the  country  a  higher  and  better  civilization 
is  gradually  being  evolved;  the  young  men  and 
women  who  are  growing  up  are  happy  and 
contented  to  remain  at  home  on  the  farms, 
and  find  ample  time  and  opportunity  for  recrea- 
tion and  entertainment  of  a  kind  more  whole- 
some and  elevating  than  can  be  obtained  in 
the  cities."  l 

1  Report  of  the  Commission  on  Land  Colonization  and  Rural 
Credits  of  the  State  of  California,  1916,  p.  68. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

LAND  SETTLEMENTS  IN  OTHER 
COUNTRIES 

Ireland. 

Under  the  Land  Purchase  Act  of  1903  the 
British  Government  bought  up  9,000,000  acres 
of  land,  which  were  subdivided  into  small  farms, 
on  which  were  provided  the  necessary  houses 
and  equipment.  These  ready-made  farms  were 
sold  chiefly  to  former  tenants  at  an  average 
price  of  $50  an  acre,  with  a  period  of  nearly 
seventy  years  to  pay  for  the  farm  and  improve- 
ments, the  interest  rate  being  3^  per  cent, 
on  deferred  payments.  Farm  advisers  were 
provided  by  the  government  for  the  various 
farm  districts.  Personal  loans  were  also  made 
by  the  treasury  to  the  individual  farmer  to 
cover  the  cost  of  stock  and  implements,  also 
payable  in  small  annual  instalments  at  a  low 
rate  of  interest.  As  a  result,  "within  a  decade 


132       THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

the  wretched  farm-tenant  has  been  converted 
into  an  industrious,  progressive  and  law-abid- 
ing landed  proprietor." 

Since  1903  the  government  has  expended 
$550,000,000  in  the  purchase,  subdivision  and 
settlement  of  large  estates.  A  discontented, 
poverty-stricken  peasantry  is  being  converted 
into  a  nation  of  contented  home-owners.  It 
is  expected  that  by  1920  farm-tenantry  will 
have  practically  ceased  to  exist.  The  great 
benefits  to  Ireland  have  not  cost  the  empire 
of  Great  Britain  a  dollar,  as  the  system  is  self- 
supporting.  The  money  expended  for  land 
and  improvements  is  being  repaid  with  in- 
terest. 

Germany. 

Since  1886  the  German  Government  has 
actively  promoted  land  colonization,  in  spite 
of  the  vigorous  opposition  of  the  large  land- 
holders. The  policy  was  conducted  under 
two  different  authorities,  (i)  the  Home  Coloni- 
zation Commission,  created  to  increase  the 
number  of  small  independent  farmers  in  East 
Prussia  and  Poland,  and  (2)  a  combination  of 
local  and  state  authorities  to  promote  land 


LAND  SETTLEMENTS  133 

subdivision  and  settlement  all  over  the  coun- 
try. Officials  of  local  government  agencies 
and  rural  credit  banks  are  among  the  local 
members  of  these  organizations.  The  state 
has  provided  $214,000,000,  mostly  since  1909, 
for  the  Home  Colonization  Commission,  which 
has  subdivided  lands  and  financed  settlers  on 
more  than  a  million  acres  of  land  in  five  pro- 
vinces. Colonization  under  the  second  or- 
ganization is  of  very  recent  development,  but 
much  has  already  been  done,  especially  in  the 
way  of  providing  homes  for  farm-laborers. 
At  first  rather  poor  and  inaccessible  land  was 
bought,  but  since  1909  the  purchases  have  been 
chiefly  of  highly  improved  estates.  "The 
tendency  now  seems  to  be  to  continue  this 
until  tenant-farming  in  Germany  is  practically 
abolished  and  also  until  all  estates  of  any  size 
have  been  subdivided."  The  Home  Coloni- 
zation Commission  does  not  sell  an  estate  until 
two  years  after  it  has  purchased  it,  the  interven- 
ing time  being  used  to  carry  out  such  improve- 
ments as  can  be  made  best  before  settlement — 
like  drainage  works,  manuring,  seeding,  mac- 
adamized roads,  etc.  The  land  is  then  in  a  con- 
dition in  which  it  will  be  profitable  to  the  settler. 


I34       TEE  LAND  AND  TEE  SOLDIER 

The  farms  sold  by  the  commission  vary  from 
12  to  65  acres,  and  homes  for  farm-laborers 
from  \]/2  to  5  acres.  Where  large  groups  of 
buildings  exist  on  the  original  estates  these 
are  turned  into  a  sort  of  civic  centre,  housing 
stores,  blacksmiths'  shops,  schools,  and  churches 
for  the  colony.  Expert  advisers  are  provided 
for  the  settlers.  The  settler,  under  this  system, 
is  not  required  to  make  any  cash  payment  but 
has  the  farm  for  fifty  years  with  an  annual 
payment  of  3^2  per  cent,  interest  on  the  total 
cost.  At  the  end  of  this  period  the  payments 
on  the  land  begin.  Meantime  the  farmer  is 
compelled  to  meet  the  requirements  of  the 
state  regarding  cultivation  and  the  keeping  up 
of  improvements. 

The  Colonization  Commission  exercises 
watch  and  supervision  over  the  purchaser, 
who  is  bound  to  work  the  farm  himself.  He 
may  not  sublet  it.  He  must  insure  his  build- 
ings and  standing  crops.  The  farm  must  be 
maintained  in  good  condition.  It  must  be 
kept  supplied  with  necessary  buildings,  cattle, 
and  implements.  The  holding  cannot  be 
divided,  alienated  or  any  portion  of  it  sepa- 
rated without  government  authorization.  The 


LAND  SETTLEMENTS  135 

Colonization  Commission  has  the  right  to  re- 
purchase the  property  at  a  fixed  price. 

Provision  is  also  made  by  law  as  to  inheri- 
tance. It  was  seen  that  the  continued  sub- 
division of  small  holdings  would  defeat  the 
purpose  of  the  act.  It  would  subject  the  settlers 
to  the  risk  of  losing  their  position  as  independent 
farmers.  At  the  same  time  to  transfer  their 
holding  to  a  single  heir  at  the  market  price, 
and  subject  to  claims  of  other  heirs  would  force 
the  new  proprietor  into  debt. 

Therefore,  in  the  law  of  1896,  when  a  hold- 
ing is  transferred  to  a  single  heir  rather  than 
to  all  of  the  claimants,  special  banking  facili- 
ties are  provided  to  make  loans  for  the  payment 
of  the  interests  of  the  other  heirs. 

The  funds  of  the  commission  have  been  in- 
creased several  times.  They  were  raised  to 
200,000,000  marks  in  1898,  350,000,000  marks 
in  1902,  and  535,000,000,  marks  in  1908.  All 
told,  the  Home  Colonization  Commission  has 
650,000,000  marks  as  working  capital. 

In  1908  the  Home  Colonization  Commis- 
sion was  granted  the  right  to  expropriate  land 
for  the  purpose  of  subdivision.  This  provision 
was  added  because  of  the  difficulty  of  acquiring 


136       THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

land  required  for  development  work.  Ex- 
propriation is  only  authorized  for  a  total  area 
of  175,000  acres,  and  it  is  only  to  be  used  in 
case  of  impossibility  of  acquiring  sufficient 
land  by  other  means. 

The  commission  is  managed  by  a  committee 
under  the  government.  In  1911  the  staff  of 
the  commission  included  30  superior  officers 
and  about  500  employees.  There  are  three 
general  departments.  One  for  the  temporary 
administration  of  landed  estates;  another  for 
the  Home  Colonization,  and  the  third  for  tech- 
nical engineering,  surveying  work,  and  the 
building  of  buildings  and  improvements. 

The  commission  selects  the  estates  suitable 
for  settlement.  It  surveys  them,  improves 
them,  puts  them  in  shape  for  cultivation  in 
small  lots,  subdivides  them,  places  settlers 
upon  them,  and  watches  over  the  maintenance 
of  the  new  settlements  after  their  formation. 

From  1886  to  1911  the  commission  expended 
379,000,000  marks  on  the  purchase  of  394,000 
hectares,  about  1,000,000  acres  of  land. 

The  following  quotation  from  an  official 
report  gives  the  reasons  for  this  new  land 
policy: 


LAND  SETTLEMENTS  137 

'  .  .  .  While  every  other  country  exerted 
itself  to  the  utmost  to  strengthen  and  augment 
its  agricultural  resources  by  increasing  and 
elevating  its  rural  population,  it  cannot  be 
considered  encouraging  that  in  eastern  Ger- 
many there  are  vast  territories  almost  wholly 
in  the  hands  of  a  few  landed  proprietors.  The 
existence  of  such  large  landed  estates  not  only 
hinders  the  natural  progress  of  the  peasant 
class,  but,  greatest  evil  of  all,  it  is  the  principal 
cause  of  the  diminished  population  of  many 
territories  because  the  working-classes,  find- 
ing no  chances  of  moral  or  econonic  improve- 
ment, are  driven  to  emigrate  to  the  great  cities 
and  manufacturing  districts.  Scientific  re- 
searches also  prove  that  small  farms  nowadays 
are  more  profitable  than  large;  above  all,  small 
live-stock  improved  farms,  the  importance  of 
which  for  the  nutriment  of  the  people  is  con- 
stantly increasing/' 

In  1913  the  German  Government,  to  check 
rising  land  prices  and  to  promote  the  more 
rapid  subdivision  and  closer  settlement  of 
large  farms,  provided  for  the  compulsory  pur- 
chase of  70,000  acres  of  land.  Regarding  the 
areas  which  were  subdivided,  it  was  stated: 

"Where  formerly  there  had  been  at  one  end 
of  the  social  scale  a  few  rich  landowners,  often 
non-residents  and  exercising  undue  political 
influence,  and  at  the  other  end  a  large  number 


138       THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

of  poverty-stricken  and  discontented  peasants 
and  farm-laborers,  there  is  now  a  great  middle- 
class  society  devoted  to  the  empire  for  what 
it  has  done  for  its  members." 

A  report  issued  in  1915  stated  that  the  em- 
pire land  settlement  policy  was  the  chief  factor 
in  enabling  Germany  to  meet  the  situation 
created  by  cutting  off  food-supplies  by  the 
blockade: 

"It  kept  thousands  of  farmers  in  Germany 
who  would  otherwise  have  become  valuable 
citizens  of  the  United  States." 

Russia. 

Between  1906  and  1910  the  Peasants'  Land 
Bank,  subsidized  by  the  government  at  the 
rate  of  $2,575,000  a  year,  bought,  subdivided, 
and  sold  to  settlers  4,041,789  acres  of  land, 
a  larger  amount  than  has  been  settled  under 
a  similar  system  in  any  other  country.  The 
average  selling  price  was  $23  an  acre,  the  maxi- 
mum size  of  a  farm  57  acres.  The  farmer  may 
secure  a  loan  covering  90  per  cent,  of  the  value 
of  the  land,  with  interest  at  4  per  cent.,  through 
the  money  and  credit  facilities  supplied  by 
the  government.  Also,  millions  of  acres  of 


LAND  SETTLEMENTS  139 

land  in  Siberia  have  passed  into  the  possession 
of  small  farmers. 

From  this  it  is  apparent  that  the  farm-colony 
idea  is  not  an  experiment.  It  is  a  recognized 
policy  of  the  governments  of  Great  Britain, 
Germany,  Russia,  Denmark,  and  Australia. 
In  all  of  these  countries  the  evils  of  landlordism, 
of  tenancy,  of  decaying  agriculture,  and,  far 
more  important,  decaying  people,  have  been 
recognized.  And  all  of  these  nations  have 
adopted  substantially  the  same  procedure  for 
recreating  a  healthy  agricultural  life.  None 
of  them,  it  is  true,  have  completely  abandoned 
the  old  isolated  farming,  and  created  a  farm 
community  equipped  with  the  comforts  and 
amenities  of  town  life.  Denmark  and  Aus- 
tralia come  nearest  to  the  ideal.  In  Denmark 
the  village  is  still  in  large  measure  the  centre 
of  the  farm  life  of  the  country.  Australia  has 
introduced  many  of  the  features  of  the  colony 
idea,  as  has  California.  But  the  essential 
features  in  all  of  these  developments  are  the 
same.  These  features  are:  (i)  state  promotion; 
(2)  the  purchase  of  large  tracts  of  land;  (3) 
their  subdivision  into  farms  of  the  proper  size; 
(4)  cheap  credit  advanced  by  the  state;  (5) 


140       THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

supervision  by  experts;  and  (6)  control  of  the 
title,  for  a  limited  period  at  least,  by  the  com- 
munity. 

It  remains  for  America  to  free  its  construc- 
tive imagination  and  synthesize  the  ideas 
of  other  countries  and  develop  the  farm  colony, 
not  alone  as  a  means  of  producing  food  or  of 
keeping  men  on  the  land,  but  as  a  means  of 
creating  an  opportunity  for  a  free,  comfortable, 
and  alluring  life,  not  for  the  returning  soldier 
alone,  but  for  other  land-hungry  people  as 
well. 


CHAPTER  XX 

WHAT  OTHER  COUNTRIES  ARE  PLAN- 
NING FOR  THE  SOLDIER 

All  of  the  warring  countries  are  preparing 
to  attract  the  returning  soldier  to  the  land. 
This  is  especially  true  of  Great  Britain,  Aus- 
tralia, New  Zealand,  and  Canada.  It  is  true 
of  Germany  as  well.  Elaborate  inquiries  have 
been  made  by  official  agencies  in  Great  Britain 
on  the  subject  of  land  colonization,  while  the 
Australian  colonies  have  enacted  generous 
legislation,  and  provided  substantial  financial 
assistance  for  this  purpose.  A  special  com- 
mittee appointed  by  the  president  of  the  Board 
of  Agriculture  and  Fisheries  of  Great  Britain 
has  made  an  elaborate  report  on  the  subject, 
which  states: 

"The  demobilization  of  the  Navy  and  Army 
at  the  close  of  the  war  will  afford  a  unique  op- 
portunity for  developing  agriculture  in  this 
country.  It  is  of  the  utmost  importance  to 
the  welfare  of  the  nation  that  this  opportunity 
should  be  seized  and  turned  to  the  greatest 
advantage.  The  men  who  have  joined  the 
141 


142       THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

forces  include  representatives  of  all  the  best 
elements  of  our  population;  many  of  them 
possess  a  high  degree  of  enterprise  and  intelli- 
gence, and  if  any  substantial  number  can  be 
attracted  to  seek  a  career  on  the  land  at  home 
it  will  give  a  stimulus  to  the  agriculture  of 
the  country." 

The  committee  discarded  any  hope  of  keep- 
ing the  soldier  on  the  land  as  an  agricultural 
drudge  or  a  tenant.  It  saw  little  hope  of  up- 
building the  agricultural  life  of  the  community 
or  of  affording  a  decent  existence  to  the  soldier 
under  former  competitive  and  isolated  con- 
ditions. Rather  it  recommended  a  new  agri- 
cultural programme  along  farm-colony  lines. 

The  findings  and  recommendations  of  the 
committee  include: 

(1)  Expert  Guidance. 

It  is  considered  essential  that  any  scheme 
of  land  settlement  by  the  state  should  make 
provisions  for  both  expert  agricultural  advice 
and  business  organization. 

(2)  Settlement  in  Colonies. 

That  any  scheme  of  land  settlement  by  the 
state  should  be  on  the  colony  system.  This 


PLANNING  FOR  THE  SOLDIER      143 

colony  is  also  to  be  desired  in  order  to  provide 
them  expert  guidance  and  social  life  to  which 
the  soldiers  have  become  accustomed  during 
their  service  with  the  colors. 

(3)  Size  of  Colony. 

The  ideal  settlement  should  be  a  village 
community  of  at  least  100  families.  Speaking 
generally,  the  minimum  aggregate  to  be  taken 
for  a  fruit  and  market  garden  settlement  should 
be  1,000  acres,  and  for  settlement  on  a  dairy 
or  mixed  holding,  2,000  acres. 

(4)  Type  of  Cultivation. 

The  type  of  holding  which  on  the  whole  is 
likely  to  be  the  most  suitable  for  men  with 
little  or  no  previous  experience  of  agriculture 
is  that  devoted  to  fruit  and  market  gardening. 
Inexperienced  men  can  be  trained  more  easily 
and  more  quickly  to  grow  fruit  and  vegetables 
than  is  the  case  with  any  other  form  of  culti- 
vation. Small  dairy-holdings  devoted  mainly 
to  the  production  of  milk  might  be  increased 
in  number  almost  indefinitely.  The  other 
type  of  small  holdings,  the  mixed  farm  of  from 
35  to  50  acres,  comprising  both  arable  and 


144       THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

grass  land,  requires  a  varied  knowledge  and 
considerable  experience,  and  consequently  the 
committee  is  not  of  the  opinion  that  ex-service 
men  should  attempt  it  until  they  have  gained 
some  knowledge  and  experience.  The  com- 
mittee also  suggests  that  pig  and  poultry  rais- 
ing should  be  combined  with  the  types  of  hold- 
ing mentioned  above. 

(5)  Ownership  or  Tenancy. 

The  majority  of  the  committee  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  small  holdings  should  be 
on  the  basis  of  tenancy  rather  than  owner- 
ship. The  principal  objection  to  ownership  is 
that  it  is  impossible  for  the  state  to  exercise 
any  effective  supervision.  Second,  under  the 
ownership  system,  the  owner  must  find  a  pur- 
chaser for  his  holdings,  and  he  may  not  be 
able  to  move  without  sacrificing  a  considerable 
part  of  his  capital.  Then,  under  the  system 
of  ownership,  a  small  holder  will  have  to  sink 
part  of  his  capital  in  the  land  instead  of  using 
it  for  stocking  and  working  his  holding.  A 
system  of  ownership  also  offers  facilities  for 
mortgaging.  Under  any  system  of  state-aided 
purchase,  there  must  be  restrictions  on  the 


PLANNING  FOR  THE  SOLDIER      145 

part  of  the  owner  during  the  currency  of  the 
loan,  and  few  occupying  owners  created  by  a 
system  of  state-aided  purchase  could  hope  to 
become  landowners  during  their  own  lifetime. 

(6)  Selection  and  Training  of  the  Tenants. 

It  is  considered  necessary  that  the  men  with 
little  or  no  previous  experience  should  be  given 
a  preliminary  training.  The  "best  method  of 
giving  this  training  will  be  to  employ  the  men 
temporarily  at  a  weekly  rate  of  pay  on  a  colony 
established  by  the  state."  The  land  acquired 
will  be  conducted  as  a  large  farm  under  the 
control  of  a  manager  appointed  by  the  Board 
of  Agriculture. 

Applications  from  ex-service  men  who  de- 
sire to  settle  on  the  land  will  be  carefully  ex- 
amined by  officials  acting  on  behalf  of  the 
board,  and  the  men  with  no  previous  experi- 
ence, but  who  were  otherwise  suitable,  would 
be  offered  employment  on  the  farm  at  a  weekly 
wage  together  with  a  cottage  and  garden.  As 
soon  as  any  of  these  men  had  acquired  sufficient 
experience  and  showed  promise  of  being  satis- 
factory small  holders,  a  portion  of  the  farm 
near  their  cottages  should  be  let  to  them.  Pro- 


146       THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

vision  should  be  made  in  laying  out  the  farm 
so  that  adjoining  land  could  be  added  to  their 
holdings,  as  they  became  capable  of  taking  a 
larger  area. 

Those  applicants  [who  satisfy  the  board 
that  they  have  the  necessary  experience  and 
capital  might  be  allowed  to  take  holdings  of 
their  own  at  once  without  any  preliminary 
training. 

(7)  Equipment  and  Adaptation. 

The  development  of  property  acquired  by 
the  state  should  be  prepared  on  the  following 
lines : 

A  sufficient  number  of  houses  should  be 
built  for  settlers  who  will  be  employed  in  the 
first  instance  at  a  weekly  wage.  Each  holding, 
the  committee  recommends,  should  be  equipped 
with  necessary  outhouses.  The  map  annexed 
to  the  report  illustrates  the  way  in  which  an 
area  of  1,000  acres  might  be  developed  so  as 
to  provide  112  small  fruit  and  market  garden 
holdings,  together  with  additional  land  for 
extensions  of  the  holdings,  and  a  central  farm. 
The  cost  might  be  reduced,  if  the  government 
would  hand  over  to  the  board,  free  of  cost, 


PLANNING  FOR  THE  SOLDIER      147 

the  military  encampments  erected  all  over  the 
country.  The  equipment  of  the  colony  should 
also  include  a  depot  and  store  to  be  used  in 
connection  with  the  sale  of  requirements  and 
the  disposal  of  produce,  a  central  clubroom, 
and  other  buildings,  such  as  a  jam-factory, 
creamery,  or  others  that  may  be  found  desir- 
able. 

The  necessary  road-making,  water-supply, 
drainage,  fences,  etc.,  should  be  taken  over 
by  the  board.  In  the  case  of  fruit  and  market 
garden  colonies  part  of  the  land  should  be 
planted  with  fruit-trees  and  bushes  as  soon 
as  possible  after  the  land  is  acquired  so  that 
when  the  tenants  enter  into  possession  they 
will  find  their  holdings  ready  stocked. 

(8)  Settlers'  Wives. 

The  success  of  a  small  holder  largely  de- 
pends upon  the  co-operation  of  his  family, 
and  the  committee  is  of  the  opinion  that  special 
consideration  should  be  given  to  the  capacity 
of  men's  wives  to  assist  in  the  work,  and  to 
their  willingness  to1  settle  on  the  land.  It  is 
considered  advisable  that  country  life  should 
be  made  as  attractive  as  possible  to  women 


148       THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

and  include  arrangements  for  instruction  in  the 
branches  of  work  which  they  undertake. 

The  question  of  the  provision  of  agricultural 
education  for  women  has  been  considered  by 
the  Agricultural  Education  Conference  ap- 
pointed by  the  Board  of  Agriculture  under 
the  chairmanship  of  Lord  Barnard,  and  the 
committee  has  presented  its  report  on  the  sub- 
ject. The  report  states  that  women  should 
be  instructed  in  such  subjects  as  dairying,  in- 
cluding butter  and  cheese  making,  in  rearing 
young  stock  and  in  poultry-keeping,  horticul- 
ture, bacon-curing,  baking  and  fruit-preserving, 
jam-making,  bee-keeping,  and  in  farm  book- 
keeping, as  well  as  in  domestic  economy.  The 
report  further  recommends  the  establishing  of 
women's  clubs  or  institutes,  which  have  proved 
so  successful  in  Canada  in  improving  the  con- 
ditions of  home  life,  in  raising  the  standard  of 
living,  providing  the  means  of  social  recreation, 
and  in  giving  women  a  greater  interest  in  coun' 
try  pursuits. 

The  agriculture  committee  concurs  in  the 
recommendation  made  in*  the  report  of  the 
Agricultural  Education  Conference,  and  is  of 
the  opinion  that  it  should  be  adopted  as  far 


PLANNING  FOR  THE  SOLDIER      149 

as  possible  in  connection  with  the  proposals 
made  here  for  the  settlement  of  ex-service  men 
on  the  land. 

(9)  Social  Amenities. 

All  possible  social  amenities  should  be  pro- 
vided in  the  colonies,  and  women's  institutes 
or  clubs  should  be  established  for  the  settlers' 
wives.  "We  do  not  want  to  see  a  purely  self- 
contained  colony  of  agriculturists,  consisting 
only  of  men  engaged  in  cultivating  their  hold- 
ings by  day  and  listening  to  lectures  on  co- 
operation at  night." 

It  would  be  advantageous  if  village  industry 
such  as  basketry,  weaving,  lace-making,  and 
other  handicrafts  were  established. 

(10)  Provision  for  Expert  Guidance. 

Great  emphasis  is  laid  on  the  need  for  expert 
guidance  by  a  resident  director  and  a  horticul- 
tural instructor  for  the  settlers  in  each  colony. 
A  resident  director  should  be  in  each  colony. 
He  would  be  responsible  for  the  management 
of  the  estate  while  farmed  as  a  whole,  for  super- 
vising the  instruction  of  the  settlers  during 
their  initial  period  of  training,  and  for  advising 


150       THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

the  small  holders  as  to  the  cultivation  of  their 
holdings,  the  purchase  of  their  requirements 
and  disposal  of  their  produce.  In  addition, 
the  plan  provides  for  occasional  instruction  in 
the  several  branches  of  agriculture  by  a  system 
of  extension  lectures.  There  is  also  recom- 
mended administration  farms,  run,  as  far  as 
possible,  on  a  commercial  basis,  so  as  to  teach 
proper  business  methods  as  well  as  methods  of 
good  cultivation.  Farm  management,  in  fact, 
is  to  be  one  of  the  principal  subjects  of  instruc- 
tion, not  only  for  the  men  but  also  for  their 
wives,  who  frequently  make  the  better  book- 
keepers. In  addition,  the  committee  emphasizes 
the  importance  of  bookkeeping  being  taught 
more  systematically  than  at  present  by  the 
local  educational  authorities,  both  in  elemen- 
tary schools  and  as  part  of  the  curriculum  of 
all  farm-schools  and  agricultural  colleges. 

(n)  Co-operation  and  the  Disposal  of  Products. 

The  committee  recognizes  that  steps  should 
be  taken  to  encourage  co-operation  in  all  di- 
rections, each  colony  being  provided  with  an 
establishment  for  sale  and  purchase  under 
the  management  of  the  director.  The  train- 


PLANNING  FOR  THE  SOLDIER      151 

ing-farm  of  each  colony,  in  addition  to  giving 
the  principal  training,  should  also  provide 
facilities  for  the  hiring  out  of  independent 
settlers,  horses,  machines,  and  implements.  Co- 
operation can  be  the  result  only  of  careful 
education  and  must  have  time  for  growth,  that 
is  why,  in  the  case  of  a  colony  of  men  who 
are  strangers  to  one  another  and  do  not  pos- 
sess practical  knowledge  of  the  provisions  of 
marketing,  it  will  be  better  to  begin  by  start- 
ing under  the  control  of  the  director  who  can 
control  the  produce  and  dispose  of  it  to  the 
best  possible  advantage.  The  committee,  how- 
ever, hopes  that  as  the  small  holders  acquire 
experience  they  will  become  capable  of  taking 
over  the  control  of  the  organization  and  run- 
ning it  as  a  co-operative  society. 

In  each  fruit  and  market  garden  colony,  a 
depot  should  be  established  for  the  produce 
of  the  colony.  The  depot  should  be  under 
the  control  of  the  director  of  the  colony  who 
will  be  in  touch  with  all  the  markets.  It  is 
not  recommended  that  the  small  holders  should 
be  compelled  to  dispose  of  their  produce  through 
the  depot  but  every  inducement  should  be 
given  them  to  do  so,  and  they  should  be  sup- 


152       THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

plied  with  full  information  as  to  the  actual 
situation  of  the  market.  Provision  should  also 
be  made  for  dealing  with  surplus  products 
which  could  not  be  sold,  by  the  establishment  of 
a  jam-factory,  a  fruit-drying  plant,  a  creamery 
and  cheese-factory,  or  other  suitable  means. 

(12)  Provision  for  Working  Capital. 

The  committee  came  to  the  conclusion  that 
there  are  serious  objections  to  the  advance  of 
capital. 

The  need  for  capital  arises  from: 

First,  the  payment  from  the  tenant  on  entry 
to  the  holding  in  respect  of  tenant  right  and 
unexhausted  improvements. 

Second,  the  cost  of  maintenance  for  the  small 
holder  and  his  family  until  he  begins  to  get 
a  return  for  his  holdings. 

Third,  the  cost  of  purchasing  the  necessary 
stock  and  implements  for  the  holding. 

With  regard  to  the  first,  the  committee  thinks 
that  it  is  a  sound  rule  to  require  payment  on 
entry.  In  the  view  of  the  committee,  the  only 
safe  course  is  to  require  the  tenant  to  pay  on 
entry  for  all  temporary  improvements  of  which 
he  gets  immediate  benefit  and  which  are  seen 


PLANNING  FOR  THE  SOLDIER      153 

to  exist,  and  for  all  produce  which  could  be 
marketed.  The  committee  thinks,  however, 
that  this  -burden  of  tenant  right  can  be  eased 
under  the  state  colonies,  as,  for  instance,  the 
incoming  tenant  should  not  be  required  to 
take  over  hay  or  straw  in  excess  of  his  actual 
needs.  The  director  of  the  colony  might  be 
given  a  discretionary  power  to  defer  payment 
in  cases  where  such  a  course  is  warranted. 

With  regard  to  the  second  point,  it  would 
be  unwise  to  let  a  holding  to  a  tenant  unless 
he  was  in  a  position  to  maintain  himself  and 
his  family  until  he  got  a  return  from  the  hold- 
ing. 

With  regard  to  the  third  point,  it  is  recom- 
mended that  each  colony  should  have  a  co- 
operative credit  society  which  would  be  the 
principal  means  of  capitalizing  the  individual 
holdings,  and  which  is  to  be  financed  also  by 
the  state  to  the  extent  of  5  shillings  for  each 
acre. 

(13)  Rents  and  Finance. 

Rents  of  the  small  holdings  should  be  suf- 
ficient to  recoup  the  capital  outlay  and  the 
cost  of  management,  except  the  salaries  of 


154      THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

the  resident  staff  and  the  cost  of  preliminary 
training,  but,  since  the  land  remains  in  the 
ownership  of  the  state,  it  is  proposed  that  no 
sinking  fund  shall  be  charged. 

In  the  first  instance,  a  sum  of  2,000,000 
pounds  should  be  placed  at  the  disposal  of 
the  board  for  the  purpose  of  land  settlement, 
and  further  sums  as  may  be  needed  should 
be  provided. 

(14)  Settlement  by  County  Councils. 

Ex-service  men  possessing  the  necessary 
experience  and  capital,  and  who  are  not  pre- 
pared to  move  to  state  colonies,  or  ex-service 
men  possessing  the  necessary  experience  and 
capital  who  want  holdings  to  be  worked  in 
conjunction  with  some  other  business,  should  be 
provided  with  small  holdings  by  county  councils. 

(15)  Disabled  Men. 

"So  far  as  settlement  on  the  land  is  con- 
cerned, we  are  strongly  opposed  to  the  segrega- 
tion of  disabled  men,  or  to  anything  like  the 
establishment  of  colonies  for  cripples." 


PLANNING  FOR  THE  SOLDIER      155 
(16)  Propaganda  for  Land  Settlement. 

A  campaign  in  favor  of  land  settlement  at 
home  should  be  undertaken  by  the  Board  of 
Agriculture  with  the  assistance  and  co-opera- 
tion of  the  Admiralty  and  War  Office,  prior 
to  the  demobilization  of  the  navy  and  army. 
For  this  purpose,  attractive  literature,  pam- 
phlets and  leaflets,  should  be  prepared  and  cir- 
culated to  the  sailors  and  soldiers  before  their 
discharge  from  the  Navy  or  Army.  Every 
endeavor  should  be  made  to  work  in  co-opera- 
tion with  such  bodies  as  the  National  Organiza- 
tion for  Employment  of  Ex-Soldiers,  Incorpo- 
rated, Soldiers'  Help  Society,  and  the  Navy 
Employment  Agency. 

In  conclusion,  the  report  points  out  that 
it  will  be  to  national  advantage  to  attract 
a  considerable  number  of  ex-service  men  to 
the  land  as  small  holders,  which  is  far  more 
likely  to  conduce  to  real  success  than  anything 
that  has  hitherto  been  attempted  in  this  coun- 
try.1 

1  Final  Report,  Part  I,  of  the  Department  [Committee,  Ap- 
pointed by  the  President  of  the  Board  of  Agriculture  and  Fisher- 
ies, to  Consider  the  Settlement  or  Employment  on  the  Land,  in 
England  and  Wales,  of  Discharged  Sailors  and  Soldiers.  30  pp. 
Cd.  8182,  1916. 


CHAPTER  XXI 
THE  REDEMPTION  OF  FARMING 

Aside  from  the  returning  soldier,  the  redemp- 
tion of  farming  and  the  opening  up  of  the  land 
to  would-be  farmers  is  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant problems  that  confront  us. 

We  must  provide  for  an  entirely  new  type 
of  agriculture.  It  must  differ  from  the  old 
as  the  department  store  differs  from  the  vil- 
lage shop. 

We  must  build  anew.  Not  by  chance,  not 
by  accident,  but  by  the  use  of  the  same  kind 
of  intelligence  we  have  used  in  the  building 
of  ships,  the  erection  of  houses  for  munition- 
workers,  and  the  integration  of  industrial  life 
for  the  conduct  of  the  war.  There  must  be 
a  vision  of  agriculture  as  a  co-operative  ac- 
tivity, a  means  of  fuller  life.  And  there  must 
be  protection  to  the  farmer  from  the  land 
speculator,  the  banks,  the  middlemen,  the  dis- 
tributing agencies.  In  other  words,  the  farmer 

as  an  individual  producer  cannot  face  modern 

156 


TEE  REDEMPTION  OF  FARMING     157 

conditions  which  in  other  industries  have  passed 
into  large-scale  production  with  all  of  the  aids 
of  science  and  invention. 

Moreover,  the  waste  of  agriculture  is  colossal. 
Each  farmer  is  detached.  He  raises  the  same 
things  and  does  the  same  things.  He  owns 
the  same  machines.  He  works  twelve  months 
a  year  in  order  that  he  may  be  profitably  em- 
ployed for  six  or  seven.  He  keeps  his  horses 
and  cattle  for  months  at  a  dead  loss.  He  mar- 
kets alone,  and  finds  his  own  customer.  It  is 
as  though  every  man  who  made  shoes  had  to 
find  the  individual  person  in  the  world  who 
wanted  his  particular  shoes.  The  farmer  is 
still  in  the  bartering  age.  But  he  does  not 
barter  with  an  equal  chance.  He  must  bar- 
gain with  a  world  market  and  a  highly  or- 
ganized system  of  monopoly  that  buys  what 
the  farmer  sells  as  cheaply  as  possible  and 
holds  within  its  hands  all  of  the  marketing, 
warehousing,  and  transportation  agencies  of 
the  country. 

Agriculture  cannot  prosper  under  such  ob- 
solete conditions.  The  isolated  farmer  is  an 
economic  survival  of  the  last  century.  And  it 
is  those  countries  that  have  recognized  these 


158       THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

facts  and  adjusted  agriculture  to  these  changed 
conditions  that  are  making  farming  pay. 

Conditions  of  Successful  Agriculture. 

Agriculture  does  not  differ  from  other  occu- 
pations in  the  conditions  that  must  co-exist 
to  make  it  profitable.  And  in  the  countries 
in  which  agriculture  is  the  most  efficient  and 
the  most  productive  we  find  the  following  fac- 
tors co-exist: 

(a)  Absence  of  tenancy. 

(b)  Adequate,     cheap,     and    well-organized 

means  of  distribution  and  marketing, 
owned  by  the  state  or  the  farmer. 
(i)  Cheap  credit. 

(d)  Easy  access  to  the  land  by  men  of  small 

capital. 

(e)  Educational  and  recreational  advantages. 

Wherever  these  conditions  prevail  agricul- 
ture is  prosperous.  The  farmer  is  reasonably 
contented.  The  farm  holds  its  own.  There 
is  no  great  drift  to  the  city.  Wherever  these 
conditions  do  not  exist,  we  find  an  increasing 
urban  population,  a  drift  away  from  the  farm, 
and  the  more  or  less  rapid  decadence  of  agri- 
culture. This  is  true  of  England  and  Scotland; 


THE  REDEMPTION  OF  FARMING     159 

it  is  true  of  the  greater  part  of  Germany;  it  is 
true  of  the  United  States  as  well. 

The  encouragement,  possibly  the  saving  of 
agriculture,  involves  a  new  policy  on  the  part 
of  the  federal  and  the  State  governments. 

Such  a  policy  involves  a  wide  extension  of 
government  aid  and  co-operation.  It  involves 
the  greatest  freedom  and  encouragement  to 
the  farmers  to  co-operate. 

It  should  provide  for  the  following: 

(i)  Suspend  the  Homestead  and  Reclamation  Laws. 

The  immediate  suspension  of  the  homestead 
law,  and  sale  of  land  in  fee  under  the  reclama- 
tion projects.  The  remaining  public  land  of 
all  kinds,  including  forest  and  mineral,  with 
their  titles,  should  be  retained  by  the  govern- 
ment. 

Oklahoma  was  opened  up  to  settlement 
barely  thirty  years  ago.  It  is  one  of  the  richest 
States  in  the  West.  The  land  was  distributed 
to  settlers  under  the  Homestead  Act,  and  enter- 
prising farmers  entered  the  State  from  all  over 
the  country.  To-day  there  are  104,000  tenant 
families  in  Oklahoma,  while  of  the  95,000  farms 
operated  by  owners  80  per  cent,  are  mort- 


160       THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

gaged,  the  first  mortgages  ranging  from  40 
to  60  per  cent,  of  the  cash  value  of  the  land. 

These  are  some  of  the  results  of  our  home- 
stead policy.  We  have  repeated  the  same 
mistakes  in  our  reclamation  projects.  The 
needless  suffering  of  these  settlers  is  even 
greater  than  in  the  case  of  the  homesteaders. 
The  failures  of  thousands  of  pioneers,  who 
have  wasted  their  efforts  only  to  become  im- 
poverished, is  a  standing  indictment  of  the 
foolish  effort  to  place  a  man  unaided  upon 
unreclaimed  land. 

On  one  of  the  government  reclamation  pro- 
jects of  the  West,  580  out  of  898  settlers  aban- 
doned their  purchases.  Such  a  condition  is 
the  rule  rather  than  the  exception.  Many 
settlers  on  the  reclamation  projects  are  unable 
to  meet  their  instalments. 

The  effort  to  place  settlers  on  isolated  tracts 
in  the  mountain  or  semi-arid  regions  has  also 
been  a  failure.  Thus,  on  the  west  side  of  the 
Trinity  National  Forest,  in  California,  348 
homesteads  have  been  taken.  Of  these,  252, 
or  72  per  cent.,  have  already  been  abandoned, 
and  196,  or  28  per  cent.,  of  the  settlers  are 
leading  a  precarious  existence.  In  the  Florida 


THE  REDEMPTION  OF  FARMING     161 

National  Forest  there  have  been  496  entries 
obtained  under  various  land  settlement  laws, 
representing  a  total  area  of  74,371  acres.  A 
census  taken  in  1914  showed  only  900  acres  put 
under  actual  cultivation  on  these  claims,  or  an 
average  of  1.8  acres  per  claim  for  the  entire 
number  of  claims. 

Professor  Elwood  Mead,  of  the  University 
of  California,  who  has  made  a  careful  study 
of  agricultural  conditions  in  this  country  and 
Australia,  and  who  is  the  leading  advocate  of 
the  farm-colony  idea,  characterizes  our  land 
policy  in  the  following  words: 

"Only  a  small  fraction  of  the  public  lands 
were  transferred  directly  to  cultivators.  Nearly 
three-fourths  were  sold  to  speculators  or  granted 
to  corporations  and  States,  which  in  turn  sold 
them  to  speculators.  The  result  has  been  a 
costly,  wasteful,  migratory  experiment.  The 
nation  has  been  exploited,  rather  than  de- 
veloped. Great  landed  estates  have  been 
created  and  ruinously  inflated  land  prices  now 
prevail. 

"The  consequences  of  this  careless,  short- 
sighted, unsocial  policy  are  coming  home  to 
roost.  We  are  beginning  to  realize  that  the 
fortunes  made  in  land  speculation  came  mainly 
from  the  pockets  of  the  poor;  that  our  land 


162       THE  LAND  AND  TEE  SOLDIER 

policy  is  not  creating  an  economic  democracy, 
but  the  reverse." 

Probably  one-half  of  the  land  in  a  large 
part  of  the  Central  and  Western  States  is 
supporting  two  families:  one,  the  family  of 
the  landlord;  the  other,  the  family  of  the 
tenant. 

(2)  Public  Control  of  Transportation  and  Market- 
ing. 

Transportation  agencies,  railroads,  refrigator- 
cars,  express  and  parcel-post  service  must  be 
organized  to  aid  the  farmer  in  the  marketing 
of  his  produce.  Much  of  the  agricultural  pros- 
perity of  Australia,  Denmark,  and  Germany 
is  traceable  to  the  close  official  aid  given  the 
farmer  by  the  railroads  of  the  country.  In 
the  United  States  the  railroads,  working  in 
co-operation  with  other  exploiting  agencies, 
have  been  an  active  agent  in  destroying  agri- 
culture. 

It  is  to  the  interest  of  the  farmer  that  pack- 
ing and  slaughter  houses,  cold-storage  plants 
and  terminal  warehouses  should  be  publicly 
owned.  This  is  equally  true  of  other  wholesale 
distributive  and  storage  agencies,  which  should 


THE  REDEMPTION  OF  FARMING     163 

be  operated  in  close  co-operation  with  the 
transportation  agencies. 

The  American  farmer  is  forced  to  sell  his 
cattle,  sheep,  and  hogs  to  the  packing  syn- 
dicate; his  poultry,  butter,  and  eggs  to  the 
cold-storage  men;  his  vegetables  must  be  han- 
dled through  the  commission  merchants,  while 
the  major  products  of  the  farm,  wheat,  rye, 
barley,  and  oats,  must  be  marketed  through 
the  millers  and  the  warehouses  in  the  grain 
centres  of  Chicago  and  Minneapolis. 

The  farmer  is  the  only  producer  who  works 
for  an  unknown  price.  He  does  not  know  what 
he  will  receive  for  his  labor,  or  his  investment. 
He  produces  blindfolded.  It  is  to  the  interest 
of  those  speculative  agencies  that  control  the 
market  to  reduce  the  prices  to  the  minimum 
and  to  extort  the  highest  prices  possible  from 
the  consumer.  This  economic  helplessness  of 
the  farmer  has  produced  the  insurgent  move- 
ments in  the  West.  It  lies  back  of  the  Non- 
Partisan  movement  of  the  Dakotas,  Montana, 
and  the  Central  West. 

(3)  Usury. 

The  farmer  is  also  a  prey  to  the  banker. 
Great  parts  of  the  West  passed  from  freehold 


164       THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

ownership  to  tenancy  through  usury  and  mort- 
gage foreclosures  that  were  almost  incredible. 
The  practices  employed  in  Oklahoma,  which 
only  a  few  years  ago  was  opened  up  to  free 
homesteading,  are  described  in  the  annual  re- 
port of  the  Comptroller  of  the  Currency  for 
1915. 

Many  banks  in  the  West  are  dominated  by 
the  packing  syndicates  on  the  one  hand,  and 
the  millers,  commission  men,  and  cold-storage 
agencies  on  the  other.  They  make  use  of  their 
power  to  compel  the  farmer  to  sell  when  the 
middlemen  desire  him  to  sell.  They  thus  con- 
trol the  price  which  the  farmer  receives. 

A  suggestion  of  the  extent  to  which  the  five 
big  packing  interests,  Wilson,  Armour,  Swift, 
Morris,  and  Cudahy,  control  the  banks  of  their 
territories  is  to  be  found  in  the  Summary  of 
the  Report  of  the  Federal  Trade  Commission  on 
the  Meat  Packing  Industry,  published  July  3, 
1918.  This  report  also  shows  the  extent  to 
which  the  farmer  is  dependent  on  the  same 
agencies  for  transportation,  cold  storage,  as 
well  as  in  the  marketing  of  his  produce. 

There  can  be  no  security  to  the  farmer  so 
long  as  credit,  transportation,  the  packing, 


THE  REDEMPTION  OF  FARMING     165 

marketing,  and  distribution  of,  his  produce  are 
in  private  hands. 

(4)  Land  Monopoly. 

There  is  land  enough  in  America  to  support 
millions  of  farmers  and  feed  many  millions 
more  in  the  city.  We  have  only  begun  to 
occupy  the  culturable  land  of  the  country.  The 
United  States  has  a  population  of  but  33  to 
the  square  mile.  Yet  land  values  are  as  high 
as,  and  in  many  portions  of  the  country  are 
higher  than,  in  any  country  in  Europe. 

Compare  the  situation  with  other  countries. 
In  little  Belgium,  which  feeds  herself  and,  along 
with  Denmark,  helps  feed  England  as  well, 
there  are  671  persons  to  the  mile.  In  Denmark, 
the  world's  agricultural  experiment  station, 
whose  farm  wealth  has  increased  most  rapidly 
in  recent  years,  the  population  is  183.56  to 
the  mile.  In  France,  a  great  agricultural  coun- 
try, there  are  191;  in  the  United  Kingdom, 
379-47^  m  Austria-Hungary,  197.31,  and  in 
Switzerland,  236.97  people  to  the  square  mile. 

Yet  none  of  these  countries  has  the  climate, 
the  soil,  the  variety  of  culture,  or  the  natural 
soil  resources  of  America.  Were  our  lands 


i66       THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

cultivated  as  they  are  in  other  countries,  were 
the  land  opened  up  to  people,  and  agriculture 
protected,  the  United  States  might  have  ten 
times  as  many  farmers  as  now  live  upon  the 
soil,  while  our  population  might  be  at  least 
500,000,000,  or,  with  the  density  of  Great  Brit- 
ain, 1,000,000,000  could  find  a  home  with  us. 

As  suggestive  of  the  land  that  is  held  out 
of  use,  it  appears  that  of  our  total  area  enclosed 
in  farms,  amounting  to  878,798,325  acres, 
only  478,451,750  acres  are  reported  as  im- 
proved, while  400,446,575  acres  are  reported 
as  unimproved.  The  total  area  of  the  country, 
exclusive  of  Alaska,  is  1,937,144,000  acres. 
Only  about  one-fourth  of  this  was  in  what 
was  classed  by  the  census  as  improved  farms. 

(5)  Speculation  and  Inflated  Land  Values. 

With  the  monopoly  of  the  land  and  its  with- 
holding from  use  speculation  began.  Land 
values  shot  up.  They  became  prohibitive. 
Men  could  not  buy  a  farm  and  make  a  living 
from  it  and  pay  interest  on  their  mortgage. 
Fifty  years  ago  land  in  Iowa,  Illinois,  Kansas, 
and  the  Dakotas  was  sold  at  from  £3  to  $5 
an  acre.  To-day,  much  of  it  is  held  at  from 


THE  REDEMPTION  OF  FARMING     167 

$50  to  $300  an  acre.  In  California,  land  which 
a  generation  ago  could  be  had  for  the  asking 
is  held  at  from  $500  to  $1,000  an  acre. 

Farming-land  in  the  United  States,  with 
people  living  at  about  33  to  the  square  mile, 
is  held  at  a  higher  speculative  price  than  in 
any  country  in  the  world,  with  the  possible 
exception  of  such  highly  developed  farming 
countries  as  France,  Holland,  Belgium,  and 
Denmark. 

Speculative  land  values  are  indicated  by 
the  census  returns  of  agricultural  land.  In 
1900  the  farming-land  of  the  United  States 
was  valued  at  $13,000,000,058.  In  1910  it 
had  risen  to  $28,475,000,000.  In  ten  years' 
time  farming-land  increased  in  value  by  $15,- 
000,000,000,  or  1 1 8. 1  per  cent.  This  is  not 
due  to  the  increase  in  farm  acreage,  for  the  in- 
crease of  acreage  during  these  years  was  but 
4.8  per  cent.,  while  the  number  of  persons  en- 
gaged in  agriculture  increased  but  n  per  cent. 
The  increase  in  the  value  of  agricultural  land 
is  a  speculative  increase.  It  is  due  to  the  fact 
that  the  land  is  all  gone,  while  a  hundred  mil- 
lion people  demanding  food  and  raw  materials 
have  created  a  continuing  pressure  for  its  use. 


i68       THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

This  #15,000,000,000  of  land  values,  which 
may  have  increased  to  $25,000,000,000  by 
1918,  is  an  unearned  increment.  It  is  a  social 
value,  due  to  the  necessities  of  society,  and 
increased  population. 

Men  cannot  now  buy  land,  except  at  a  pro- 
hibitive price.  And  they  cannot  acquire  free 
land  as  they  could  two  generations  ago.  Herein 
is  the  main  obstacle  to  free  farming.  It  is  this 
that  sends  the  sons  of  farmers  from  the  land. 
It  is  this  that  explains  tenancy.  It  is  this  that 
creates  the  agricultural  laborer. 

This  is  the  main  reason  why  we  do  not  have 
more  farms  and  more  food.  The  land  of 
America  is  closed  against  us.  It  is  closed 
against  our  children,  and  the  returning  soldier 
as  well.  America,  endowed  with  the  most 
marvellous  resources  in  the  world,  has  become 
a  nation  of  landless  people.  We  have  sold 
our  birthright  for  a  mess  of  pottage.  For  we 
did  not  even  create  a  nation  of  home-owning 
farmers  in  the  process. 

Land  monopoly  and  speculation  have  erected 
a  wall  about  the  land  of  America.  Men  can- 
not get  to  it.  They  can  only  work  for  some 
one  else.  If  they  buy  they  must  spend  their 


THE  REDEMPTION  OF  FARMING     169 

lives  in  paying  for  land  that  a  few  years  ago 
cost  little  or  nothing.  A  hundred-acre  farm 
at  $100  costs  $10,000.  In  Iowa,  Kansas,  Il- 
linois, Oklahoma,  and  other  States  it  would 
cost  from  $150  to  $350  an  acre.  That  is  an 
initial  cost  of  from  $15,000  to  $35,000  for  a 
farm. 

In  order  to  pay  for  a  farm  that  makes  a  clear 
profit  of  $1,000  a  year  a  man  must  work  a 
lifetime,  with  no  reverses,  no  drouths,  and  no 
setbacks.  Yet  the  farmer  has  no  assurance 
of  good  years.  And  few  farmers  make  $1,000 
from  their  entire  crop. 

A  nation  with  land  enough  for  500,000,000 
people  is  confronted  with  a  diminishing  food- 
supply.  This  is  not  a  fanciful  danger,  as  ref- 
erence to  the  continuing  falling  off  in  the  pro- 
duction of  all  kinds  of  foodstuffs  in  another 
chapter  proves. 

(6)  Farm  Tenancy. 

As  a  result  of  land  monopoly  and  specula- 
tion, America  is  rapidly  becoming  a  nation 
of  farm-tenants.  Yet  this  is  the  last  country 
where  tenancy  would  have  been  believed  pos- 
sible. Modern  Europe  inherited  the  feudal 


170       THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

system  from  mediaeval  times.  The  land  was 
divided  into  great  estates,  owned  by  the  old 
nobility.  A  great  part  of  Prussia,  Austria- 
Hungary,  and  Great  Britain  is  still  owned  as 
it  was  in  the  seventeenth  century.  The  farmer 
is  a  tenant  or  agricultural  worker.  He  is  a 
descendant  of  the  feudal  serf. 

In  so  far  as  farm-ownership  exists  in  a  great 
part  of  Europe,  it  is  the  result  of  revolution, 
as  in  France  and  Russia,  or  of  recent  land  legis- 
lation, as  in  Ireland,  Denmark,  and  other  parts 
of  Europe.  Europe  is  struggling  to  evolve 
from  feudalism  to  home-ownership;  the  United 
States  is  evolving  from  home-ownership  to 
feudalism.  For  the  essence  of  feudalism  is  land- 
lordism. 

Tenancy  increased  by  16.3  per  cent,  during 
the  ten  years  from  1900  to  1910.  In  the  latter 
years  thirty-seven  farmers  out  of  a  hundred 
were  tenants,  while  2,354,676  farms  were  oper- 
ated by  others  than  owners.1 

*"A  recent  survey  in  Iowa,  to  find  out  why  farm-tenantry 
was  increasing  so  much  more  rapidly  than  farm-ownership,  showed 
that  land  which  twenty  years  ago  could  be  bought  for  $40  an 
acre  now  sells  for  $200  an  acre;  that  the  money  formerly  needed 
to  buy  it  outright  now  pays  only  about  one-fifth  the  price.  It 
showed  that  young  men  who  attempt  to  buy  farms  without  cap- 


THE  REDEMPTION  OF  FARMING     171 

In  the  Southwestern,  Central,  and  Southern 
States  tenancy  is  much  more  common.  Fifty- 
three  per  cent,  of  the  farms  in  Texas  are 
operated  by  tenants,  whose  total  number  in 
1910  was  219,571.  In  Oklahoma  and  other 
Middle  and  Southern  States  tenancy  is  quite 
as  common,  in  some  districts  rising  to  80  per 
cent,  of  the  total.  Tenancy  in  these  States 
is  destructive  of  the  qualities  which  we  at- 
tribute to  free  America.  It  leads  to  ignorance, 
improvidence,  and  the  decay  of  agriculture. 
The  tenant  loses  ambition.  He  permits  the 
land  to  depreciate.  He  does  not  fertilize  it. 
He  does  not  rotate  the  crops.  He  makes  no 
improvements  that  he  can  possibly  avoid.  He 
buys  no  machinery.  In  most  instances  he  cannot. 

The  social  conditions  that  inhere  in  the  ten- 
ant system  are  even  worse.  The  tenant  is 
ignorant.  He  does  not  send  his  children  to 
school.  He  uses  them  on  the  farm.  Frequently 
he  has  to  use  them,  for  he  cannot  employ  out- 
side labor. 

ital  need,  on  an  average,  fifty  years  in  which  to  earn  the  money 
to  complete  the  payments  for  their  land;  that  as  a  rule  they  do 
not  attempt  to  begin  as  farm-owners,  but  work  first  as  laborers, 
then  as  tenants,  and  that  in  about  fifteen  years  they  are  able  to 
accumulate  enough  money  to  make  the  first  payment." 


172       THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

The  tenant  has  little  hope.  The  improve- 
ments made  by  him  go  to  the  landlord.  The/ 
are  made  an  excuse  for  an  increase  in  the  rent. 
It  is  these  economic  conditions  that  make 
tenancy  a  grave  menace  to  agricultural  pro- 
duction on  the  one  hand,  and  to  the  develop- 
ment of  self-respecting  citizenship  on  the  other. 
For  the  tenant  is  in  fear.  He  fears  the  land- 
lord and  the  banker.  He  fears  taxes  and  im- 
provements. He  cares  little  or  nothing  for 
education.  For  they  all  threaten  his  [ability  to 
make  a  living  or  to  improve  his  condition. 

The  whole  subject  of  agricultural  tenancy 
was  examined  by  the  Industrial  Relations 
Commission,  and  a  volume  of  testimony  was 
taken  on  the  subject.  The  testimony  and  find- 
ings of  conditions  read  like  a  chapter  from 
Ireland  in  the  middle  of  the  last  century.1 

(7)  The  Cost  of  Our  Land  Policy. 

We  endeavored  to  create  a  nation  of  home- 
owning  farmers  by  giving  away  lands  to  the 
first  comers.  It  resulted  in  the  appropriation 
of  a  continent  capable  of  maintaining  500,- 

1  See  chapter  I  of  Report  of  Commission  on  Industrial  Rela- 
tions. 


THE  REDEMPTION  OF  FARMING     173 

000,000  people  in  comfort  by  those  who  got 
there  first.  We  divided  great  commonwealths 
as  big  as  France  into  feudal  holdings  which 
are  worked  now  by  Mexicans,  by  farm  drudges, 
by  tenant-farmers.  Great  States  like  Texas, 
Oklahoma,  California,  Iowa,  and  Eastern  States 
as  well,  have  passed  in  large  part  from  freehold- 
ownership  to  tenancy.  Unbridled  middlemen 
have  engaged  in  usury  through  the  control  of 
our  banking  agencies,  and  have  still  further 
increased  landlordism  through  mortgage  fore- 
closures. America  should  be  the  granary  of 
the  world.  It  should  feed  its  people  at  a  neg- 
ligible cost;  yet  the  amount  of  food  being  pro- 
duced is  falling  in  quantity  and  rising,  in  price. 
The  old  order  has  broken  down.  Home- 
steading  proved  a  failure.  The  reclamation 
projects  lured  many  men  who  wanted  to  be 
farmers.  In  many  cases  they  were  broken  by 
adverse  conditions.  They  lost  their  invest- 
ment and  savings  and  the  hope  of  their  lives 
as  well.  Settlements  on  forest-preserves  have 
been  scarcely  less  calamitous.  The  Southern 
States  have  been  carved  into  plantations,  while 
farms  in  the  Northern  States  have  been  de- 
serted by  men  whose  traditions  are  those  of 


174       THE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

the  soil  but  who  have  been  driven  into  the 
city  by  the  false  foundations  upon  which  we 
have  endeavored  to  erect  an  agricultural  polity. 

(8)  The  Basic  Reform  of  Democracy. 

Back  of  all  other  reforms  is  some  means  of 
freeing  the  land  and  resources  of  the  earth 
so  that  men  can  use  them.  Slacker  acres  are 
the  obstacles  to  real  freedom  in  any  nation. 
Junkerdom  in  Germany  was  based  notion  heredi- 
tary titles  but  on  the  feudal  ownership  of  the 
land  by  the  nobility.  It  was  landlordism  that 
impoverished  Ireland.  Great  Britain  is  phys- 
ically undermined  by  the  persistence  of  a 
mediaeval  system  of  land-tenure  under  which 
the  land  is  held  in  huge  estates.  These  estates 
are  kept  intact  by  entail  and  primogeniture  and 
freedom  from  taxation. 

America,  too,  is  divided  into  great  baronial 
holdings  and  estates  held  out  of  use  by  specu- 
lators who  distort  our  civilization  and  drive 
men  to  the  city  by  prohibitive  prices  for  the 
land  which  they  do  not  use  themselves  and 
prevent  others  from  using. 

Land-value  taxation  is  a  basic  reform.  It 
will  end  speculation.  It  will  break  up  great 


THE  REDEMPTION  OF  FARMING     175 

estates.  It  will  open  up  opportunities  to  labor. 
It  will  cheapen  land.  It  will  do  this  by  com- 
pelling men  to  use  or  sell.  Taxation  will  free 
land.  It  will  also  free  labor.  It  will  make  it 
possible  for  men  to  become  owners  rather  than 
tenants,  and  will  offer  to  the  agricultural  worker 
a  farm  of  his  own. 

(9)  America  and  the  New  Agriculture. 

Professor  Elwood  Mead,  of  the  University 
of  California,  referred  to  in  other  chapters, 
makes  the  following  comment  on  the  new  con- 
ception of  farming.  He  says: 

"Only  those  who  live  under  their  own  vine 
and  fig-tree  realize  the  full  value  of  rural  life. 
The  most  satisfactory  social  progress  and  the 
greatest  advances  in  agriculture  are  found 
where  patriotism  has  its  roots  in  the  soil.  Sev- 
eral of  the  leading  countries  of  the  world  have 
realized  this  fact.  In  order  to  check  political 
unrest,  to  lessen  the  economic  loss  by  migra- 
tion to  other  countries  and  lessen  the  move- 
ment from  the  country  into  the  cities,  Den- 
mark, Ireland,  New  Zealand,  the  Australian 
Commonwealth,  Germany,  and  to  a  lesser  de- 
gree a  number  of  other  countries,  have  inaugu- 
rated a  plan  of  rural  development  in  which  the 
land  is  bought  in  large  areas,  subdivided  into 
farms  and  farm-laborers'  allotments,  and  then 


176       TEE  LAND  AND  THE  SOLDIER 

sold  to  actual  settlers  on  long-time  payments. 
The  buyers  are  aided  in  improving  and  culti- 
vating these  farms  by  a  competent  organiza- 
tion, adequately  financed  by  the  government. 
They  are  given  the  benefit  of  expert  advice, 
not  only  in  their  agricultural  operations  but 
in  forming  buying  and  selling  organizations. 
In  other  words,  these  countries  are  creating 
an  organized  community  development. 

"This  plan  of  rural  development  is  the 
greatest  agrarian  reform  of  the  last  century. 
It  is  enabling  discontented  tenantry  and  poor 
laborers  to  enjoy  landed  independence,  to 
live  in  better  houses,  to  have  more  and  better 
live  stock,  to  educate  their  children  and  to 
have  a  deeper  love  for  their  country  for  what 
it  is  doing  for  them.  A  new  and  better  civiliza- 
tion is  being  born. 

"The  adoption  of  this  policy  by  the  United 
States  will  not,  therefore,  be  an  experiment. 
It  has  been  a  financial  and  economic  success 
in  the  thickly  populated  countries  of  Europe, 
and  in  the  sparsely  populated  countries  of 
Australia  and  New  Zealand.  The  need  for  it 
in  the  United  States  is  far  more  acute  than 
this  optimistic  nation  realizes.  In  the  ten 
years  before  the  beginning  of  the  present  war 
900,000  people  left  the  United  States  to  take 
farms  in  Canada.  They  took  with  them  mil- 
lions of  capital  and  an  energy,  ability,  and  ex- 
perience that  we  can  not  afford  to  lose.  In 
the  year  preceding  the  war  one  of  the  Brazilian 
states  had  1,600  applications  for  farms  from 


THE  REDEMPTION  OF  FARMING     177 

the  single  city  of  San  Francisco.  In  the  stress 
of  this  war  the  Commonwealth  of  Australia 
has  appropriated  $100,000,000  to  be  spent  in 
buying  and  subdividing  land  and  making  farms 
ready  for  cultivation  for  the  returning  soldiers. 
England  is  preparing  homes  for  the  empire's 
returning  soldiers.  Germany  has  a  complete 
set  of  plans  for  the  agricultural  development 
of  Poland.  Our  young  men  will  return  home 
filled  with  enterprise,  looking  at  the  world 
in  a  new  way;  and  unless  we  make  provision 
in  advance  for  enabling  them  to  enjoy  landed 
independence  without  undergoing  the  priva- 
tion, hardship,  and  anxiety  of  the  purchase  of 
land  under  the  conditions  imposed  by  private 
colonization  agencies,  they  will  not  remain 
here.  They  will  embrace  the  broader  oppor- 
tunities afforded  by  the  state  aided  and  di- 
rected development  of  other  countries."  l 

1  Professor  Elwood  Mead's  pamphlet  on  Staff  Aid  and  Direction 
in  Land  Settlement,  p.  5. 


APPENDIX 

PROPOSED  LEGISLATION  FOR  THE 
FARM  COLONY 

Such  wide-spread  interest  has  been  aroused 
in  the  problem  of  the  rehabilitation  of  the  re- 
turning soldier,  and  especially  in  the  placing  of 
the  soldier  on  the  land,  that  a  measure  has 
been  prepared  at  the  instance  of  Secretary  of 
the  Interior  Franklin  K.  Lane,  for  adoption  by 
the  several  States.  The  proposal  for  the  recla- 
mation of  waste  land  and  the  development  of 
farm  colonies  has  received  the  approval  of 
the  President  in  his  address  to  Congress  Decem- 
ber 2,  1918. 

Copies  of  the  measure  can  be  secured  by 
writing  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  Wash- 
ington. 

The  proposed  measure  follows: 

DRAFT  OF  BILL  PROPOSED  FOR  COOPERA- 
TION BETWEEN  THE  STATES  AND  THE 
UNITED  STATES  TO  PROVIDE  EMPLOY- 
MENT AND  HOMES  FOR  SOLDIERS, 

179 


i8o  APPENDIX 

SAILORS,  AND  MARINES,  UNDER  WHICH 
THE  STATES  SHALL  FURNISH  THE  LANDS 
AND  THE  UNITED  STATES  THE  FUNDS; 
WITH  AN  ALTERNATIVE  PROPOSITION 
SO  THAT  THE  STATES  MAY  PARTICIPATE 
FURTHER  IN  FURNISHING  FUNDS  AND 
ALSO  IN  SUPERVISING  THE  IMPROVE- 
MENT AND  SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  LANDS. 

AN  ACT  PROVIDING  FOR  CO-OPERATION  WITH  THE 
UNITED  STATES  IN  THE  SETTLEMENT  OF  RETURNED 
SOLDIERS,  SAILORS,  AND  MARINES,  ON  STATE  LANDS 
AND  LANDS  ACQUIRED  UNDER  THIS  ACT;  CREAT- 
ING A  SOLDIER  SETTLEMENT  BOARD,  DEFINING  ITS 
POWERS  AND  DUTIES,  AND  MAKING  AN  APPROPRIA- 
TION THEREFOR. 

(Note. — Certain  features  of  this  draft  may  need  change 
in  some  States  to  comply  with  Constitutional  require- 
ments. References  to  irrigation,  water  rights  and 
the  appropriation  of  water  and  other  similar  matter 
should  be  stricken  out  where  not  applicable  in  any 
State.) 

SEC.  I.  This  Act  may  be  known  and  cited  as 
"The  Soldier  Settlement  Act." 

SEC.  2.  The  object  of  this  Act  is,  in  recognition 

of  military  service,   to   provide   employment   and 

rural  homes  for  soldiers,  sailors,  marines,  and  others 

.who  have  served  with  the  armed  forces  of  the  United 


APPENDIX  181 

States  in  the  European  war  or  other  wars  of  the 
United  States,  including  former  American  citizens 
who  served  in  allied  armies  against  the  Central 
Powers  and  have  been  repatriated,  and  who  have 
been  honorably  discharged,  hereafter  referred  to 
generally  as  "soldiers";  and  to  accomplish  such 
purpose  by  co-operation  with  the  agencies  of  the 
United  States  engaged  in  work  of  a  similar  char- 
acter. 

SEC.  3.  Two  alternative  plans  for  such  co-opera- 
tion are  embodied  herein,  one  in  section  7  and  the 
other  in  section  8,  all  other  sections  in  this  Act 
contained  being  equally  applicable  to  both  such 
plans.  In  order  to  carry  out  the  provisions  hereof 
there  is  hereby  established  a  fund  to  be  known  as 
the  "Soldier  Settlement  Fund"  by  appropriation 
herein  and  hereafter  made.  For  co-operation  with 
the  agencies  of  the  United  States  there  is  hereby 
created  a  Soldier  Settlement  Board,  hereafter  re- 
ferred to  as  the  Board,  composed  of  three  members, 
one  to  be  appointed  by  the  Governor  and  designated 
as  Soldier  Settlement  Commissioner  and  who  shall 
serve  as  chairman  of  the  Board,  and  shall  receive 
a  salary  of  $5,00x3  per  annum,  the  two  others  shall 
be  the  president  of  the  State  Agricultural  College, 
and  the  state  engineer,  as  ex-officio  members.  The 
Commissioner  shall  hold  office  for  a  term  of  five 
years  and  until  his  successor  has  been  appointed 
and  shall  have  qualified.  The  Attorney  General 
shall  be  the  legal  adviser  of  the  Board  and  prosecute 


i82  APPENDIX 

or  defend  any  suits  or  actions  arising  out  of  the 
discharge  of  their  official  duties.  The  Board  shall 
appoint  a  secretary  and  such  other  officers  and  em- 
ployees as  it  deems  necessary,  shall  fix  their  salaries, 
and  provide  for  all  necessary  expenses  for  carrying 
out  the  provisions  of  this  Act.  The  Board  may 
dismiss  the  secretary  or  any  officer  or  employee 
for  good  cause.  Two  member  shall  constitute  a 
quorum,  which  may  exercise  all  the  power  and 
authority  conferred  on  the  Board. 

SEC.  4.  The  Board  shall  satisfy  itself  of  the  prac- 
ticability of  each  undertaking  proposed,  utilizing 
all  related  State  agencies,  and  thereupon  shall  co- 
operate with  the  authorities  of  the  United  States 
in  the  preparation  of  plans  for  settlement  of  sol- 
diers. The  Board  is  authorized  to  utilize  public 
lands  of  the  State  and  to  acquire  agricultural  lands 
which  may  ,be  deemed  suitable  for  settlement,  to- 
gether with  necessary  water  rights,  rights  of  way, 
and  other  appurtenances.  When  deemed  advisable 
in  the  discretion  of  the  Board  and  the  co-operating 
agencies  of  the  United  States,  any  of  said  lands 
may  be  leased  until  it  may  be  deemed  advisable 
to  sell  or  use  the  same.  The  Board  may  also  set 
aside  and  dedicate  to  public  use  appropriate  tracts 
for  roads,  schoolhouses,  churches,  or  other  public 
purposes.  Any  lands  belonging  to  the  State  and 
deemed  by  the  Board  suitable  for  the  purposes  of 
this  Act  shall  be  available  for  disposition  by  the 
Board  and  the  State  Land  Board  shall  co-operate 


APPENDIX  183 

with  the  Board  in  every  way  necessary  to  carry 
out  the  purposes  of  this  Act  in  regard  to  such  lands. 
The  Board  is  hereby  authorized  to  perform  all  acts 
necessary  to  co-operate  fully  with  the  agencies  of 
the  United  States  engaged  in  work  of  similar  char- 
acter. 

SEC.  5.  Whenever  the  Board,  in  accordance 
with  plans  agreed  upon  with  the  authorities  of  the 
United  States,  desires  to  acquire  land,  it  shall  give 
notice  by  publication  in  one  or  more  newspapers 
of  general  circulation  in  the  State  calling  for  offers 
from  owners  of  land  of  the  character  desired.  Such 
notice  shall  be  published  once  a  week  for  five  con- 
secutive weeks,  the  last  date  of  publication  being 
not  more  than  one  week  prior  to  the  date  of  opening 
offers,  and  shall  specify  the  matter  which  should 
be  incorporated  in  such  offers.  After  thorough 
investigation  and  report  as  to  the  character  of  the 
lands,  rights  and  appurtenances,  upon  an  examina- 
tion by  one  or  more  members  of  the  Board,  together 
with  a  representative  of  the  co-operating  agency 
of  the  United  States,  and  such  experts  of  the  State 
Agricultural  College  and  others  as  may  be  deemed  ad- 
visable, and  after  approval  by  the  Attorney  General 
of  the  State  of  the  title  to  lands  and  any  water-rights 
or  other  rights  appurtenant  thereto  deemed  essential 
by  the  Board,  and  after  approval  of  the  purchase 
by  the  authorities  of  the  United  States  and  arrange- 
ments made  by  the  United  States  so  that  the  Federal 
Government  may  undertake  the  reclamation  of  the 


184  APPENDIX 

lands  if  necessary  and  for  improvement  and  sub- 
division of  the  lands,  the  Board  may  recommend 
the  acquirement  of  the  land  to  the  Governor,  and 
on  the  approval  by  the  Governor,  the  lands  deemed 
necessary  for  carrying  out  the  plans  agreed  to  with 
the  United  States,  shall  be  acquired  by  purchase, 
gift,  or  condemnation.  Payment,  if  necessary,  shall 
be  made  out  of  funds  provided  by  the  State  or 
by  settlers  under  conditions  fixed  by  agreement 
between  the  Board  and  the  owners  of  said  lands. 
The  Board  shall  have  the  discretion  to  reject  any 
or  all  offers,  to  accept  offers  which  may  not  be  the 
lowest  and  to  readvertise  from  time  to  time  as  it 
may  deem  necessary. 

SEC.  6.  In  co-operating  with  the  agencies  of  the 
United  States  the  Board  is  empowered  to  take  title 
in  the  name  of  the  State  to  lands  in  fee  simple  or 
in  trust  or  under  such  other  conditions  as  may  be 
deemed  advisable  for  the  purposes  of  this  Act,  and 
may  convey  title  thereto  or  execute  such  liens  as 
may  be  necessary  for  carrying  out  the  plans  decided 
upon  in  co-operation  with  the  agencies  of  the  United 
States.  The  title  to  the  land  furnished  by  the  State 
shall  be  held  by  all  purchasers  under  such  condi- 
tions and  restrictions  as  may  be  specified  in  the 
Federal  statutes  relating  to  this  subject,  or  approved 
by  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior. 

SEC.  7.  The  basis  of  co-operation  under  the  first 
alternative  plan  shall  be  that  the  State  shall  pro- 
vide the  land  needed  for  settlement  and  the  United 


APPENDIX  185 

States  shall  provide  the  money  necessary  to  meet 
the  expenses  of  reclamation  and  subdivision  and 
the  necessary  improvements  and  equipment,  per- 
form the  necessary  work  and  have  charge  of  all 
settlement  work.  The  Board  shall  make  appropriate 
arrangements  with  the  agencies  of  the  United  States 
for  repayment  to  the  State  of  the  cost  of  land 
furnished  by  the  Board  which  may  be  utilized  in 
providing  homes  for  the  soldier,  and  all  money  so 
received  or  otherwise  received  by  the  Board  shall 
be  turned  into  the  Soldier  Settlement  Fund  and 
be  available  for  meeting  the  obligations  of  the  Board 
on  account  of  the  land  and  for  further  expenditures 
in  accordance  with  the  provisions  of  this  Act.  The 
moneys  so  payable  to  the  State  shall  be  collected 
by  Federal  agencies,  and  the  Board  may  contract 
with  the  United  States  to  the  end  that  where  dis- 
bursements have  been  made  by  way  of  construction 
costs  for  the  reclamation  and  improvement  of  any 
given  land,  repayments  to  the  United  States  on 
account  thereof  shall  be  divided  between  the  Federal 
Government  and  the  State  Soldier  Settlement  Fund 
in  proportion  to  the  disbursements  made  by  the 
Federal  agencies  and  the  Board  respectively. 

SEC.  8.  The  basis  for  co-operation  under  the 
second  alternative  plan  shall  be  that  the  Board 
shall  make  actual  expenditures  in  an  amount  not 
less  than  25%  of  the  total  investment  for  reclama- 
tion as  hereinafter  defined,  for  actual  payment  for 
the  land,  for  farm  improvements  as  hereinafter 


i86  APPENDIX 

defined,  and  for  the  purchase  of  farm  implements, 
stock  and  other  necessary  equipment,  any  actual 
outlay  of  money  for  the  lands  to  be  used  being  com- 
puted as  a  part  of  such  25%,  and  the  Board  shall 
have  the  option,  under  the  supervision  of  the  Secre- 
tary of  the  Interior,  to  control  the  preparation  of 
the  land  as  homes  and  the  settlement  thereof  under 
such  agreement  as  may  be  made  with  the  United 
States  and  in  accordance  with  the  following  pro- 
visions : 

(a)  After  the  necessary  financial  plans  have  been 
made,  the  Board  shall  proceed  with  such  work, 
providing  in  the  subdivision  of  the  land  for  farms 
each  having  a  value  when  unimproved  as  determined 
by  the  Board  not  exceeding  £15,000  and  for  farm- 
laborer  allotments  each  having  a  value  when  un- 
improved as  determined  by  the  Board,  not  exceeding 
$1,500;  and  the  Board  may  make  the  necessary 
improvements  or  may  contract  with  the  settler  to 
make  such  improvements  upon  each  farm  or  farm 
allotment  among  others  the  following:  seeding, 
planting,  and  fencing  the  land  and  causing  dwelling 
houses  and  outbuildings  to  be  erected,  the  con- 
struction of  farm  drains  and  laterals  and  the  making 
of  such  other  improvements  as  may  be  deemed  neces- 
sary or  proper  to  render  the  particular  farm  or  allot- 
ment habitable  and  productive,  the  same  being  col- 
lectively hereinafter  referred  to  as  "farm  improve- 
ments.*' The  maximum  expenditure  for  farm  im- 
provements upon  any  allotment  shall  be  fixed  as 


APPENDIX  187 

to  each  project  by  agreement  between  the  Board 
and  the  agencies  of  the  United  States.  The  con- 
tract with  the  United  States  may  provide  for  the 
construction  by  the  Federal  Government  of  works 
for  drainage,  irrigation,  building  levees,  general 
sanitation,  and  the  subdivision  of  the  lands  and 
for  the  clearing  of  timber,  as  the  nature  of  the  in- 
dividual project  shall  require  and  for  the  levelling 
of  land  when  necessary,  and  other  work  needed  to 
render  one  or  more  groups  of  farms  available  for 
agriculture,  which  works  is  defined  for  the  pur- 
poses hereof  as  "reclamation." 

(b)  The  Board  is  authorized  to  secure  from  the 
United  States  the  necessary  funds  to  make  loans 
to  approved  settlers  for  making  permanent  improve- 
ments and  for  the  purchase  of  farm  improvements, 
stock  and  other  necessary  equipment,  which  are 
defined  for  the  purposes  hereof  as  "short-time  loans," 
each  to  be  secured  by  a  mortgage  or  other  effective 
lien  on  the  land  or  upon  property  purchased  with 
said  loan;  the  total  amount  of  each  short-time  loan 
shall  not  exceed  $3,000  for  a  farm  or  $1,000  for  a 
farm-laborer  allotment.  As  funds  are  needed  from 
the  United  States  the  proper  agencies  thereof  shall 
be  requested  to  advance  the  same.  Such  funds  shall 
be  used  for  no  other  purpose  than  as  provided  for 
by  the  Federal  laws,  and  the  rules  and  regulations. 
Each  employee  of  the  Board  handling  such  funds 
shall  be  required  to  give  bond  of  an  amount  and 
with  sureties  satisfactory  to  the  agencies  of  the 


i88  APPENDIX 

United  States  having  charge  of  soldier  settlement 
work.  Any  interest  which  may  accrue  upon  funds 
advanced  by  the  United  States  shall  be  credited 
to  the  account  of  the  United  States.  The  Board 
is  authorized  to  give  to  the  agencies  of  the  United 
States  such  assurances  of  repayment  of  moneys 
advanced  by  the  United  States  by  mortgages,  liens 
or  assignment  of  mortgages  or  liens  or  otherwise 
as  may  be  required  by  the  Federal  laws  and  the 
rules  and  regulations  thereunder. 

(c)  The  Board  is  hereby  authorized  to  take  over 
from  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  of  the  United 
States  and  to  operate  and  maintain  any  irrigation, 
drainage  or  other  works  or  improvements  constructed 
for  the  benefit  of  soldiers  by  the  U.  S.  Reclamation 
Service,  and  involving  lands  owned  or  controlled 
by  the  Board  under  this  Act,  and  shall  become  re- 
sponsible for  the  proper  care  thereof  and  provide 
for  the  repayment  of  the  cost  thereof.    The  Board 
shall  require  of  each  purchaser  of  land  the  payment 
of  proper  and  reasonable  charges  for  the  operation 
and  maintenance  and  preservation  of  such  works 
and  shall  also  be  authorized  to  make  reasonable 
charges  pursuant  to  general  regulation  for  services 
rendered  to  the  purchasers  of  lands  and  others. 

(d)  The  Board  shall  collect  from  settlers  the  sums 
due  for  principal  and  interest  on  lands,  reclamation 
costs,  farm  improvements  and  in  payment  of  short- 
time  loans,  and  shall  first  repay  all  sums  advanced 
by  the  United  States  for  short-time  loans  to  settlers 


APPENDIX  189 

and  thereafter  the  payments  of  settlers  shall  be 
divided  between  the  State  and  the  United  States 
in  proportion  to  the  amounts  due  them  respectively, 
all  amounts  due  the  State  being  turned  into  the 
Soldier  Settlement  Fund,  and  be  available  to  meet 
the  Board's  obligations. 

(e)  The  lands  disposed  of  under  this  Act  shall 
be  sold  in  accordance  with  plans  prepared  in  co- 
operation with  the  agencies  of  the  United  States 
for  soldier  settlement,  after  public  notice  in  one 
or  more  newspapers  of  general  circulation  in  the 
State,  once  a  week  for  five  consecutive  weeks,  the 
last  date  of  publication  being  not  more  than  one 
week  prior  to  the  date  of  sale,  setting  forth  in  gen- 
eral terms  the  information  necessary  for  the  public 
and  providing  for  detailed  statements  to  be  avail- 
able at  the  office  of  the  Board  and  other  convenient 
places  which  shall  supply  full  information  as  to 
the  farms  and  allotments  and  the  several  prices 
therefor.  The  manner  of  sale  shall  be  such  as  to 
afford  equal  opportunity  to  all  qualified  soldiers 
desiring  to  purchase.  The  purchaser  may  be  re- 
quired to  make  application  in  a  form  approved  by 
the  Board  stating  among  other  things,  whether 
he  has  available  the  minimum  amount  of  capital 
deemed  necessary  by  the  Board,  which  shall  be 
not  less  than  10  per  cent  of  the  improved  and 
equipped  value  of  the  farm  or  allotment,  and  whether 
he  can  comply  with  the  terms  of  payment  and  give 
such  assurances  in  regard  thereto  as  the  Board  may 


i9o  APPENDIX 

require.  The  Board  shall  have  the  discretion  to 
reject  any  or  all  applications  and  to  readvertise 
from  time  to  time  any  or  all  tracts,  as  it  deems  neces- 
sary. Any  land  which  may  be  purchased  or  other- 
wise acquired,  not  deemed  necessary  for  the  pur- 
poses of  this  Act,  may  be  sold  after  public  notice 
for  the  same  period  of  advertisement  as  herein  speci- 
fied, upon  such  terms  as  the  Board  may  prescribe. 

(f)  The  soldier  to  be  a  qualified  applicant  must 
be  a  citizen  of  the  United  States  and  must  satisfy 
the  Board  that  he  is  not  the  holder  of  agricultural 
land  or  possessory  rights  which,  together  with  the 
land,  improvements,  and  equipment  to  be  purchased 
hereunder  shall  exceed  a  value  of  $15,000.    No  pur- 
chaser shall  hold  more  than  one  farm  or  allotment 
on  which  all  charges  are  not  fully  paid,  and  each 
purchaser  shall  satisfy  the  Board  as  to  his  fitness 
to   cultivate   and   develop   the   same   successfully, 
both  financially  and  otherwise.     The  Board  may, 
in  its  discretion,  require  applicants  to  appear  be- 
fore it  in  person. 

(g)  Each    approved    applicant   shall    enter   into 
contract  of  purchase  which,  among  other  things, 
shall  create  a  mortgage  or  other  effective  lien  for 
the  payment  of  the  purchase  price  of  the  land,  the 
reclamation  costs  and  the  farm  improvements  and 
other  charges,  if  any,  and  also  require  the  purchaser 
to  actually  occupy  the  land  within  six  months  and 
to  actually  reside  thereon  for  at  least  8  months  in 
each  calendar  year  for  a  period  of  at  least  5  years, 


APPENDIX  191 

unless  prevented  by  illness  or  other  cause  satis- 
factory to  the  Board;  any  other  absence  from  the 
land  exceeding  four  months  in  any  calendar  year 
shall  be  a  breach  of  the  contract.  The  contract 
shall  provide  for  immediate  payment  of  2  per  cent 
of  the  sale  price  of  the  land,  including  reclamation 
costs  and  in  addition  not  less  than  10  per  cent  of 
the  cost  of  the  farm  improvements.  The  balance 
of  the  amount  for  the  land  and  reclamation  costs 
shall  be  due  as  follows:  2  per  cent  each  year  for 
the  first  four  years,  and  thereafter  shall  be  due  in 
annual  payments  to  be  fixed  by  the  Board  for  a 
further  period  not  exceeding  40  years  so  as  to  repay 
the  capital  sum  with  interest  on  deferred  payments 
from  the  date  of  the  contract  at  the  rate  of  4  per 
cent  per  annum.  The  title  to  the  land  shall  not 
pass  until  full  payment  for  the  land  and  the  reclama- 
tion costs.  The  amount  due  on  farm  improvements 
shall  be  repaid  in  a  period  to  be  fixed  by  the  Board 
not  exceeding  20  years  so  as  to  return  the  capital 
sum  with  interest  on  deferred  payments  at  the  rate 
of  4  per  cent  per  annum.  The  repayment  of  short- 
time  loans  shall  extend  over  a  period  to  be  fixed 
by  the  Board  not  exceeding  5  years,  payable  in 
such  amounts  and  at  such  times  as  may  be  deter- 
mined by  the  Board.  The  purchaser  shall  have 
the  right  on  any  instalment  date  to  pay  any  or 
all  instalments  thereafter  due. 

(h)  The  contract  shall  also  provide  that  the  pur- 
chaser shall  cultivate  the  land  in  a  manner  to  be 


IQ2  APPENDIX 

approved  by  the  Board  and  shall  keep  in  good  order 
all  buildings,  improvements,  and  equipment,  reason- 
able wear  and  tear  excepted.  Each  purchaser  shall 
pay  such  assessments  as  may  be  levied  by  the  Board 
to  provide  the  equivalent  of  insurance  to  protect 
the  interest  of  the  State  and  the  United  States  in 
all  buildings,  improvements  and  equipment. 

(i)  The  contract  shall  also  provide  that  until 
all  payments  thereunder  have  been  made  no  farm 
or  allotment  shall  be  transferred,  assigned,  or  mort- 
gaged in  whole  or  in  part  without  the  written  con- 
sent of  the  Board. 

(j)  The  contract  shall  also  provide  that  in  case 
of  failure  of  the  settler  to  comply  with  any  of  the 
terms  thereof  the  Board  shall  have  the  right,  at 
its  option,  to  cancel  the  contract  and  shall  there- 
upon be  released  from  all  obligations  under  the 
contract  and  the  purchaser  shall  forfeit  all  rights 
under  the  contract.  All  payments  theretofore  made 
shall  be  deemed  to  be  a  rental  paid  for  occupancy. 
The  failure  of  the  Board  to  exercise  any  option  to 
cancel  for  default  or  violation  of  the  contract  shall 
not  be  deemed  a  waiver  of  such  right  but  the  same 
may  be  exercised  thereafter.  No  forfeiture  or  cancel- 
lation shall  in  any  way  impair  the  lien  and  security 
of  the  mortgage  or  other  lien  securing  the  purchase 
price  of  the  land,  and  reclamation  costs  and  farm 
improvements,  or  the  repayment  of  loan.  Upon 
forfeiture,  cancellation,  or  relinquishment  of  a  con- 
tract the  Board  shall  have  the  right  to  sell  any  farm 


APPENDIX  193 

or  allotment  and  appurtenances,  improvements,  and 
equipment  to  any  other  qualified  purchaser. 

(k)  In  case  of  the  death  of  any  purchaser  before 
full  payment  the  rights  under  the  contract  shall 
pass  to  his  heirs  or  devisees,  who  shall  be  bound 
by  all  the  conditions  thereof,  but  may  surrender 
the  same  to  the  Board  upon  terms  and  conditions 
satisfactory  to  the  Board. 

SEC.  9.  The  Board  may  provide  all  necessary 
means  for  furnishing  agricultural  training  for  the 
soldier  so  as  to  render  him  better  qualified  for  the 
cultivation  of  his  land.  The  Board  is  authorized 
to  arrange  with  the  agencies  of  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment for  sharing  in  the  expense  of  such  work  under 
appropriate  conditions  of  supervision  by  the  Federal 
Government. 

SEC.  10.  In  any  case  where  works  have  been  or 
are  to  be  constructed  which  are  of  general  benefit 
to  an  area  involving  a  number  of  farms  or  allot- 
ments as  in  the  case  of  irrigation,  drainage,  clearing 
cut-over  land  or  other  means  of  reclamation  or 
development,  and  where  the  co-operating  Federal 
agencies  find  that  the  interest  of  the  project  would 
be  advanced  by  the  organization  of  an  Irrigation, 
Drainage,  Conservancy,  Improvement  District  or 
other  public  corporation,  the  Board  shall  take  all 
necessary  steps  in  its  power  to  accomplish  such 
organization.  The  Board  is  authorized  to  contract 
with  such  district  or  the  United  States,  or  both, 
to  carry  out  any  or  all  provisions  of  this  Act. 


194  APPENDIX 

SEC.  II.  The  power  of  eminent  domain  shall  be 
exercised  by  the  State  at  the  request  of  the  Board 
for  the  condemnation  of  property  of  any  kind  which 
may  be  necessary  for  carrying  out  the  purposes  of 
this  Act,  and  upon  request  of  the  Board  the  Attorney 
General  shall  promptly  initiate  and  carry  on  the 
appropriate  proceedings.  The  Board  shall  have 
full  authority  to  appropriate  water  under  the  laws 
of  the  State  as  may  be  necessary  or  desirable  for 
carrying  out  the  purposes  of  the  Act. 

SEC.  12.  Whenever  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior 
and  the  Board  shall  find  that  all  or  any  part  of  such 
lands  remaining  available  will  not  be  required  for 
homes  for  soldiers  they  may  be  opened  to  disposi- 
tion to  other  citizens  of  the  United  States,  subject 
to  the  provisions  and  limitations  of  this  Act. 

SEC.  13.  In  case  of  any  undertaking  for  the  recla- 
mation of  lands  in  two  or  more  States  or  any  under- 
taking involving  construction  works  in  any  State 
for  the  drainage,  irrigation  or  reclamation  of  lands 
in  whole  or  in  part  in  another  State,  the  Board  is 
authorized  and  directed  to  co-operate  with  similar 
boards  of  other  States  and  the  authorized  agents 
and  officers  of  the  United  States,  and  either  the 
United  States  or  the  said  board  of  such  other  State 
shall  have  authority  to  acquire  by  condemnation, 
purchase,  or  other  lawful  means  such  property, 
rights,  or  easements  in  this  State  as  may  be  needed 
for  such  interstate  undertaking,  upon  the  same 
terms  and  in  like  manner  as  if  such  undertaking 
were  wholly  in  this  State. 


APPENDIX  195 

SEC.  14.  For  the  purpose  of  carrying  out  the 

provisions  of  this  Act  the  sum  of  $ 

is  hereby  appropriated  out  of  any  moneys  in  the 
State  Treasury  not  otherwise  appropriated  to  be 
covered  into  the  Soldier  Settlement  Fund.  The 
State  Comptroller  is  hereby  authorized  and  directed 
to  draw  warrants  upon  such  fund  from  time  to  time 
upon  the  requisition  of  the  Board  and  the  State 
Treasurer  is  hereby  authorized  and  directed  to 
pay  such  warrants. 

SEC.  15.  The  Board  shall  report  annually  to  the 
Governor  giving  a  full  statement  of  its  operations, 
shall  also  make  investigations  regarding  the  sub- 
jects with  which  it  is  authorized  to  deal,  and  make 
recommendations  for  legislation.  The  Board  shall 
furnish  copy  of  its  report  to  the  Secretary  of  the 
Interior. 

SEC.  1 6.  The  Board  is  hereby  authorized  to  per- 
form any  and  all  acts  and  to  make  such  rules  and 
regulations  as  may  be  necessary  and  proper  for 
the  purpose  of  carrying  the  provisions  of  this  Act 
into  full  force  and  effect. 

SEC.  17.  If  any  part  of  this  Act  shall  for  any 
reason  be  adjudged  by  any  court  of  competent  juris- 
diction to  be  invalid,  such  judgment  shall  not  affect, 
impair,  or  invalidate  the  remainder  of  this  Act, 
but  shall  be  confined  in  its  operation  to  the  particular 
part  thereof  directly  involved  in  the  controversy 
wherein  such  judgment  shall  have  been  rendered. 

SEC.  1 8.  All  Acts  or  parts  of  Acts  in  so  far  as 


ig6  APPENDIX 

inconsistent  with  the  terms  of  this  Act  are  hereby 
repealed.     The  right  to  alter,  amend  or  repeal  this 
Act  is  hereby  expressly  reserved. 
SEC.  19.  (Usual  emergency  clause.) 


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